Golden Happiness Ratio

I have a theory that you can predict how happy people are – and perhaps how successful – by their ability to tolerate imperfection. The Golden Happiness Ratio is about 4/5ths right, also known as “good enough.”

Once you achieve about 80% rightness, any extra effort is rarely worth the effort. People who can’t stop until they get to 100% are usually stressed to the point where they can barely function. And don’t expect them to do much multitasking.

People who are happy with results much below 80% right are usually serial losers. Those are the people who show up for work when it “feels right.” They generally have money problems, which lead to social problems.

I consider myself the master of the 80% rule. Everything I do is shoddy by most people’s standards. For some reason this does not bother me as much as you might think. I have a high tolerance for imperfection. I consider it a key to my success.

For example, it might surprise you to know I’m a better artist than my comic strip indicates – about 20% better. But to reach that level consistently would double my workload and give me little in return. The art in Dilbert is, roughly speaking, “good enough.” And the lack of complexity arguably adds something in the “x-factor” category.

When I started this blog, I announced that I wasn’t going to put any real effort into my grammar, spelling or factual accuracy. For every person bothered by those imperfections, there’s another who appreciates the rawness of it. I could double my effort to get that extra 20% of quality, but it wouldn’t buy me anything.

Today is another perfect example. This blog entry is about 80% of where I think it could be. I could work for another hour to get it up to 85%, but it’s Sunday morning and my family has awakened. They beckon.

I declare this Sunday blog post “good enough.”

Comments

[emanuelleer]

I've just been sitting around waiting for something to happen. My life's been generally boring today. Get my pleasure.

[Ben O.]

The truth is that 78.316% is actually what it takes to get by in this world, but who's so focused upon exactness that they take it out three decimal places?

Not I!

Ben O.

[Andrew]

Brilliant. You should write management "how-to" books.

[hershel]

I like the Golden happines ratio. wasnt there some famous psychologist who came up wuith the idea of 'good enough' as a mechanism that will keep us sane & keep things in proportion?
what WAs his name?

[Trillium]

I think the % of accuracy for a complete task differs from person to person. 'X' task complete for me can be 60% complete for someone else.

For example, if I reach office without banging into anyone in this god damn traffic in Pune, I think I am 100% successful in completing "reaching the office" task. But, for someone it might add "stopping no where for no one, not even in the square + honking continuously for an inch space and increase the BP of the person driving in front of you + make everyone else to stop and push your car to reach office quickly when you don't have "Fixed" timings"...and the list goes on....

Thus, if I am a "normal" driver, I look shoddy for the driver with "those added flavors" to his driving.

So the situation boils down to "what others think of me". If you don't bother about others, you are 100% at everything and you will be happy. :-) But, if you want to live to others' expectations, you will never be 100% and obviously never be happy.

So, forget about the %s and do what you want and the way you want and you will be happy. What say Scott?

Trillium

[Linda]

What a perfect example of the point Scott made! Andrew writes:
"I'd give 140% every time! Okay, well maybe mine is not 40% of another person's, because that kind of person would probably not even understand fractions. like the darn people who cut my pizza! does anyone else have that trouble??? one slice will be 1/3 of the pizza, and there will be two slivers which would barely feed my hamster."

Andrew, I had that same pizza, and, guess what, it's NO TROUBLE at all, because I am perfectly happy with the imperfection, and indeed enjoy a certain randomness in it.

[loki]

there's an old saying in the australian building trade: "near enough is spot on".

(and how many builders do you see going to shiatsu massage centres?)

[Sameer]

Weren't Sundays no-blog days ? Or maybe I missed a post.
In any case, to stick to your 80% goal, you shou ...

[sven]

there's the difference between being 'apparantly' good and 'actually' good, if you're apparantly good enough nobody cares if you're actually good enough, bring on the happy medium

[Mark James Bowness]

Interesting. I dont mind imperfections in certain areas, whereas there are other areas of my life where I am relentlesly persuing the impossible which, yeah, leaves me stressed out and in the pub! lol.

Mark Bowness

[lily]

Over a period of time, my idea of "good enough" has sunk to - it won't get me fired.

PS: Have you heard Darren Hayes' Good enough from the album Spin? Lovely!

[koko]

its simple ...
proven that we can only work up to 95%
capacity for 25 minutes after that we slack
off and got to get tipsy

[Matt]

Regarding your comic being "good enough," is not because you are tolerant of imperfections, but because you understand the cost benefit of working that extrat 20%. In other words, "good enough," in this case, is perfect!

[Sqeaky]

quote:
Well, as you are seeing from some of the comments, "80%" is a rather arbitrary number that certainly doesn't apply to all situations.

80% success is extraordinarily good when you are a batter in baseball or are a player in any major sport.

But, 80% success is dismal when safety is a concern.

---------------
So the rule only only right in about 80% situations, that's good enough for me.

[Richard]

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

You've written some superb posts in the past, but I think this one smells like it is going to change my life--nay--grant me life.

Thank you again, sir.

[ViX]

you hit the nail on the head dude! i consider myself the happy-go-lucky types and now you've just quantified it. you ARE my guru!

i'd get a better guru, but i guess you are 'good enuf' ;)

[Noura]

Hm. I was just thinking this kind of thing the other day. My dance partner and I are trying to make a go at going pro, and part of our working together has been to get our skill level up to the point where putting in 80% is "good enough"- working to reach the point where we don't have to knock ourselves out for every show. How have we achieved this? By doing most of what we're supposed to do (working out, practicing, etc) most of the time. How do we achieve the fitness level we need to make it work? By working out to a certain percentage of our aerobic capacity a few times a week, in part. Have we made progress? Hell yes. Our 80% is still damn good, and leaves us fresh enough to put in another 80% on the next gig, and the next, and the next. Someone mentioned Michaelangelo's "80%" His 80% is still hundreds of times better than most people's 100%.

[Zif]

I think to apply this rule you need to view something as the task, not the frequency you perform it, in the washing hands example, using this system you would not wash your hands 80% of the time. You would wash them 80% well. Perhaps not use enough soap or not scrub enough to get every last germ, but still a decent enough hand washing that probably won't be a problem. Any more hand washing and you start getting into OCD standards, where one might spend an hour washing ones hands to get every last bit for only a minor improvement in hygiene.

[Bill]

Well, as you are seeing from some of the comments, "80%" is a rather arbitrary number that certainly doesn't apply to all situations.

80% success is extraordinarily good when you are a batter in baseball or are a player in any major sport.

But, 80% success is dismal when safety is a concern.

Even in non-critical situations 80% is awful. I'd fire the staff of my restaurant if they got the orders right only 80% of the time. I'd be quite upset if the barber only cut 80% of my hair. He'd probably be upset if I only paid him 80% of the price.

Of course, if my stock broker picked great stocks 80% of the time, I'd be thrilled.

I don't think you can really assign a specific number to cover all situations.

[techguy]

If you had worked on your post for just a little while longer, you would have realized that the perfect percentage is %82, and noted that.

[Dick Greene]

I try to bear in mind that "the perfect is the enemy of the good". It's particularly helpful on my home improvement efforts.

[John Keitz]

I don't really get what you get out of a blog anyway. Maybe this is why you have gobs of money and I don't, but I can tell you with certainty that, while I enjoy your blog, I would still read Dilbert every day, and still buy tons of Dilbert crap, even if you stopped the blog tomorrow. So, your effort isn't really necessary, at least 80% of the time.

[Burton MacKenZie]

I shoot for 61.8% rightness. It feels beautiful.

[Jed Snole]

I've tried explaining this to my wife - that I don't seriously consider her to be the "best" mate for me, but just good enough. There are about 3 billion women in the world and I didn't have enough time to try them all. Somehow my wife didn't understand this logic. Even if I had tried them all and could say with certainty that she was the best, I don't think she would have liked that arrangement either.

[The Dan]

For most of life, including parenting and being a spouse, 70 or 80% sounds about right.

But I was looking for any comments from engineers, lawyers, or doctors, and found only one. I'm an engineer, having spent most of my career in automotive and industrial electronics. Rule #1 is "Don't Kill The Customer". So in my line of work >99% is essential; it's part of why your car and your manufactured goods cost so much-- there's hell to pay when something goes wrong.

But Scott, you'll be happy to know that I compensate by being a good< day.

[bubba]

A buddy of mine works for a consulting firm. 80% customer satisfaction is their stated policy. Clients aren't willing to pay twice as much to get the next 20%.

[Yuriy]

Of course the whole thing falls apart because there is no way to measure "percentage of perfectness" for most things, so everybody could assign a different number to the same quality.

What's an 80% perfect driver? One that drives 20% over the speed limit and runs red lights 20% of the time?

What's an 80% perfect blog entry? One that 80% of readers enjoy?

[Joe Little]

Speak for yourself. 80% was good solid A in Scotland and quite rightly so.

[Real Live Girl]

80% is a B, which is above average and normally tolerable for non-critical things. I can live with that. And not being perfect myself, I don't judge what people are capable of giving; I only have to decide for myself when it's satisfactory or not and go from there. Makes for a pretty balanced and happy life.

[Ryan]

It's all a matter of return on investment. If you could invest 2% of the time it takes to do something and move from 80% to 100% I'm sure you'd jump at it.

I would read the comments to see if I'm duplicating someone else's post but that would take 500% of the time investment of writing this post. Guess you're out of luck there.

[Ryan]

It's all a matter of return on investment. If you could invest 2% of the time it takes to do something and move from 80% to 100% I'm sure you'd jump at it.

I would read the comments to see if I'm duplicating someone else's post but that would take 500% of the time investment of writing this post. Guess you're out of luck there.

[Karl N]

This is why I read your blog, Scott. You really have some great insight. Thanks.

[Da]

Slacker!

Dave

[Mitchell]

Well i think Scott is saying that If you want good quality above 80% You need to pay. Like Brain Surgeons from Pete's post. The make a lot of money. Along with Heart Surgeons. And art paintings worth are what critics say it is. I have lost my train of thought. If I was paid for this the quality might be better.

[LA Clay]

I will say that I am a 90%er. I would love to be able to live down to 80% but being anal rentative doesn't allow that. Hell, it's already murder living down to 90%. Help Me!

[T.G.]

I would add that beware of perfect people. (Btw for the ones who don't catch it ... perfect people is only possible in his/her own eyes, so people who internally think that they are perfect aren't prone to ammend any mistakes but to make them the "right" thing, not so unusual, not at all ...).

[Refund Please]

Sorry I don't accept less than 90% quality on any item I purchase.

Where do I get a refund on the dilbert books I've already bought which - by the artist's own admission, fail to meet this 90% standard? (he doesn't even mention it in the disclaimer - shame!)

[Greg]

Right on! Be perfect only when it's necessary - the rest of the time it's mainly small stuff. Don't sweat it! Thank you for putting it so elegantly!

[BoredProgrammer]

Me serial loser...fingers unwilling to type further

[Peter Johnston]

I'm reminded of Colin Chapman (of Lotus cars). He saw his chief designer working late one evening and said - "I don't want you staying here working 'til midnight - all I want is half an hour's bloody genius".
Sometimes, however, the genius doesn't come until midnight.

[Rahul]

I sort of agree with you, but I am putting only 80% of my effort to assess if what you say actually makes sense. Of course, being as lazy or probably even lazier than you are, i have no intention of putting that extra 20% effort (which in this case may matter, such as making me disagree with what you say) in order to to check if you are generally fooling around! Good post, btw, i kinda enjoy these kind of ones ;)

[god]

I declare this post - stupid shit.

[passerby]

So is it good enough if 80% of your staff at your restaurant wash their hands, or 80% of the food servered is cooked properly?

[Paul S]

...Unless you happen to live in China and work with a Chinese team (as I do), in which case this is more accurately "the 40% rule." To get to "50% good enough" requires a doubling of effort.

[Twounicycles]

"This also reminds me of your "out at five" business plan. I've been wondering for quite a while, could it really, really work? My sincere hope is that it could, but I've never been able to convince myself. Could a company that's satisfied with "good enough" really survive? I'd be willing to work there to find out."

The answer is they can survive and do well. The company I'm with right now wants people to work 24/7 and puts them under pressure to do so. I'm a contractor, I charge for the hours I work, "out at five" works for me. Or you can pay me 24/7, that's okay too. This company has lost over half of their staff members in the last 12 months. They individually decided that they wanted "a life" and bailed out. In at least one of the companies they've joined the manager tells you off if you're working too late, tells you to go home etc (emergencies do arise in which case all bets are off, but these are genuine emergencies, that is they don't happen every week).

Also commenting on...

"You have to wonder, what exactly is 80% of your potential?

I'm trained in the school of thought that we're capable of doing anything we put our mind to, therefore that imaginary cap of 100% doesn't really exist."

You were trained in the school of bullshit my friend. I'm ambivalent here, that comment is clearly rubbish but that attitude has got to be good. Like for example, I will never run a sub-4 minute mile I know it's beyond my physical capabilities. I will never be a great singer (I'm tone deaf, honest I've had a singing teacher tell me). But I could be a better runner and learn to lip-synch. Ignore me, stick with your fantasy...

[snroy]

I agree with you 80%.When I play tennis then I play primarily for working out and then in the course of the game if I can hit one of my favourite forehand shots then I am in seventh heaven but then I may be losing the set and my partner would be cursing me.I go back home happy with my one winning shot.Cheers.

[Tomas]

Good strategy. I just take it one step further (probably you do it as well just didn't realised). In short: you can assume that average person tries to achieve 80% of rightness. So if you try to make it slightly better (+5% of effort) you achieve the best results still staying quite relaxed. It's like being one of the tallest persons in crowd does not require you to be double tall, 2 inches above average is probably enought.

Greetings from Lithuania

[T.G.]

Damn true. I needed to have reached 40 to begin to realice it, still, sometimes i fall for the perfection call and, as ever, when i improve a good enough thing i've built (and it is working), it leads to complete disaster. Funny that i only have the call for perfection when doing hobby electronics or the recurrent improvement on the off-grid power system in the country house, not on my (kind of) cubicle software work.

[Arby]

In baseball if you bat over 400 you are in the record books for life. So only getting it right 40% of the time by today’s player’s standards is a million dollar baby. Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby batted over 400 for three years each in their career.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hi400c.shtml

Often times when a President’s “End-of -Presidency Job Approval Ratings” drops below approximately 60% they are not reelected.

http://uspolitics.about.com/library/bl_historical_approval.htm

Salespeople know that they have to make 15 targeted cold calls for one sale which is about 7% success rate (my own research and experience).

The only thing lesser would be playing the Lottery for income with odds against you of millions to one.

The trick is finding a profession that has low expectations of what success is and to embrace its mediocrity. Think I will stop now, this is depressing me. Got to go buy my Super Lotto tickets for this week.

[Mike Peter Reed]

Reach for the stars. You may not get there, but you won't come up with a mouthful of mud, either.

[jo]

I'm so happy your not my surgeon.

[jo]

I'm so happy your not my surgeon.

[Kashman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_20_rule

[this_from_MiddleEast]

Scott, It is time you started a new religion. You are a Messiah.

[Lior Haner]

I'm also a believer of this rule, though I couldn't have put it in so many words (maybe with about 20% extra effort). But I think being happy isn't only about perfectionism but also about optimism ( http://yedda.com/questions/Optimist_Pessimist_psychology_4959694150151/ ).

[j]

I get that way when I'm drunk

[Kevin Kunreuther]

Why do I get the sinking dread that our elected (and unelected) leaders follow the 20% rule?

[fifidebruxelles]

Yeah, you're right. all I'm expecting from my surgeon is that he does the job at 80%. Or my car mechanic when he is working on my brake. Who needs 100% braking capacities anyway.

[Andrew]

You're right! The problem is that my 80% of effort is probably equivalent to 40% of another person's, so would that affect my ratio? Maybe I'd have to be a 7/5.. I'd give 140% every time! Okay, well maybe mine is not 40% of another person's, because that kind of person would probably not even understand fractions. like the darn people who cut my pizza! does anyone else have that trouble??? one slice will be 1/3 of the pizza, and there will be two slivers which would barely feed my hamster.

I see what you're saying though, and agree with your point. I had a similar situation.. I was writing my graduation speech yesterday, and decided to go to a party instead of working on it for the rest of the afternoon. It was good enough as it was, and people liked it. It could have been better, but I had such a fun time instead of agonizing over it... 80% is the way! Although I'd really like the person who (possibly in the future) did my spinal surgery to go the extra mile and make sure ALL the nerves are connected to the right space :P. *tries to pick out a pack of gum.......sorry sir, i did not mean to break your biscuits*

[comrade chakra]

Hey Scott...say the guy who pay's you gets it right 80% of the time (and 80% of his errors see getting UNDERPAID)...

Will that make you 80% happy leading you to say 80% of the time 'its good enough',
I'll bet 80% chances are, you will not.

[jeff m]

For surgery, I'd rather want an accomplished surgeon who thinks it'd tap 80% of his potential, than a new surgeon who it'll take 100%. A person always working on 100% is more likely to make mistakes. A surgeon needs to know what is possible, you might need two surgeries to accomplish all tasks needed. One has to weight the risks of having one under anesthesia and opened up. If your only options are a surgery that will tap the given surgeon's ability, say some extra prayers. At the same time, I'd hope that the surgeon isn't making other surgeries more complicated than they have to be, especially for the point in time an urgent complicated surgery is needed.

I guess if we are going to apply the 80% rule to the 80% rule, we could come up with a more precise rule, but in the end is the extra work really needed? It's a better rule to reflect and mediate on. Everyone is pulled in many directions, we really need to figure out what is really adequate, that gives us the ability to also give time to other important areas.

[ramki]

Hey, I feel your comic strip is actually AWESOME. The drawing style is just right to convey that deadpan style of delivery that works so well with your humor. Keep rocking, Scott!

[larry horowitz]

So does that mean when you were looking for a wife you found someone who fit the bill about 80% and that was good enough for you? Does she know that?

Hey, for just one day, could you draw a comic at 100% so we can see what you're really capable of? When I used to read the comics in the newspaper I would marvel at the artistry of "The Hulk" and "Spiderman". I remember admiring the drawings far and above the episode.

[Eddie]

How about 61% rightness?

(1+sqrt(5))/2

[Jenny]

I disagree. You just know what it's important to focus on. The artwork in your comic strip may be 80% of what it could be, but the humor is not. If your comic strip only had 80% of your humor, you wouldn't have the success you've had. You just know that you get better pay-off focusing on laughs than on artwork. Same with the blog - you know that the people don't read you for spelling and grammar, they read for the ideas. I doubt you make 80% effort in the areas where it counts. Maybe 95% or even 90%, but not 80%. 80% is for when the stakes aren't that high.

[Christopher Edwards]

Right before I graduated a year ago, I did a group project with this guy. He didn't like me very much because I was an "80% worker". He said I would never amount to anything because I had problems completing anything... But I think he didn't like me because I was able to balance so many different things in my life, whereas, the only thing he worked on all the time was school. The great thing was that most classes are marked on curves, so if I got an 89% overall and he had a 99%, I'd still get the same A he did, hahaha. Take that!

[Greg T.]

Pareto's Law at work!

[synapticmisfires]

I shoot for 100% most of the time, and I am a stressed, angry, bitter wreck. So there you go.

Of course, the average quality still ends up at 80%, because I get so stressed that one of five projects ends up with 0% quality.

[Roni]

I'm hoping this week you'll post about the terrorists who planned to blow up JFK airport setting off a chain of explosions that would obliterate the United States as we know it.

It was said that "the suspects are alleged to have expressed an intention to attack targets, but lacked the financing, training and means to do so."

What a fascinating aspect of terrorism law. So if someone planned to mine some dark matter from the nether regions of outer space, and send it in the mail to the white house (which is why we still need stamps and post offices) to cause a red dwarf black hole to suck in the president and his cowardly cat. And that person did research by renting a DVD of something slightly related ... they could get life with no chance or parole?

Brilliant!

[Okgenuine]

Believe it or not, I was just thinking something like that. Like when you set different goals, they pull one of those percentages out of you consistently and you have to experiment with yourself. When I was in high school, I was a 50%er because I would always aim for ok unless someone proved it was worth it to do more or they really needed me to do more. But the problem with being a 50%er is, it seems the majority of people aim for about 30% unless it's something that they know is going to make them look good, then they aim as high as they can go after behaving in a way that 'appears lazy' to me. Thus driving me crazy. I guess because I have trouble relaxing due to a crappy upbringing and now schizophrenia.

[Bruce S]

A wise person referring to software standards one said, "Progress really gets made once you decide that crap is good enough." Pretty much the same idea.

[jerry w.]

I'm a sound mixer, I work on the set of crappy little movies that no one will ever see, recording dialogue done so poorly that I'd almost be doing a favor to the actor by not hitting the record button.

Most days, it's all I can do to make it up to the 80 percent quality mark you talked about, and try not to caught in the tractor beam of the craft service table. Or flirt with the make up artist.

And yet, even though I could do that extra 20 percent better, everyone is happy with what I turn in at the end of the day because there are so many others working that do the same job that I do without ever coming close to my 80 percent level.

Somehow, I'm not too happy about this. Well, except for that make up artist and the craft service table. I'll be back in a while with some red vines and a Pepsi. Get you anything?

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[penetha]

Anyone who has done some elementary reading on Eastern Spirituality knows that it is an intellectual discipline to hold back. Why, even in medicine, when we are holding our hand still, we need to use a degree of restraint so we do not slip and kill the patient during a surgical procedure.

In order to memorize all the body parts, we need to have restraint and get our sleep, and good nutrition, in order to be receptive to the knowledge.

Why, it's the very principal of function in graphic design, which is employed widely throughout animation and cartooning these days, although not with nearly as much restraint as it could be. So much out there has been polished and refined so much it just loses it's spark.

[Billy B]

It was good enough for me.

And I agree with you on the spelling and grammar, mistakes are make with monkey minds so why get too worked about it? And the word smiths and their bullshit? They make mistakes also.

Yup, good enough for me.
Billy B

[TeamTutorials]

I like the rawness.

[Lila]

All this noise about 80 - 20 reminds me of Tolkien's short story, Leaf by Niggle. A story about a man who kept painting a tree in his garage and painted and painted and couldn't leave it as "good enough" till they carried him off to the cemetery. The garage was destroyed and all that was left of the masterpiece was a single, "Leaf by Niggle."

[JPats]

80%? Go tell that to the kids in school who strive to get into college. Getting by with a C (7 point scale) doesn't usually work out.

[TrevOverT]

I've been an advocate of the 'good enough' way for many years now as any effort to make any job/exercise/chore perfect expands the particular to infinite lengths.
Today, Sunday, I got up, had coffee and cleaned the cat boxes(s), vacuumed the top floor of the house, cut and trimmed the front and the back lawns, weeded two areas of garden took digipix of a buttercup ring in the lawn and some Iris just opening with the neighbour cat strolling by, went to the pharmacy to pick up some pills, bought a hot chicken from the supermarket on the way home and made a lunch for my boss and myself...all before 2pm.
If I didn't use my 'good enough' approach for each job I would still be vacuuming... whereas I'm happily sitting here two fingering stuff to you without thought of using spelcheck... Good enough? It's a Wonderful Life!

[scott]

I had a calendar on my wall of Zen proverbs -- one said:
"%70 is perfection"

[Indian Techie]

Thank god for good enough weekend.

Cheers from the silicon valley.

[LA Clay]

yeah, whatever.

[Ray]

You may have stumbled across a source of conflict in relationships. Meaning: a 75% man and a 95% woman would probably have conflict in a relationship. Maybe a mismatch in the Golden Happiness Ratio is the source of all nagging.

[tubaguy]

I know dozens of school music teachers who think just like you.

[D. Mented]

The ones who are satisfied with way less than 80% gravitate to jobs that are responsible for other people's finances, or lives...or the fate of the free world...
The ones who want 110% always seem to end up as my boss.
D. Mented

[Noel Hurtley]

Right on the mark as usual!

[nic]

what about pride in what you do? i mean perfectionism is one thing, but you can still be pretty laid back but willing to do a good job at something just to feel proud of it. if you did everything 80% then surely at some point you'll feel like you let yourself down. what if michaelangelo gave 80% on the sistine chapel? or beethoven gave 80%? somehow i don't think you can do that for everything. sure, for unimportant stuff like a job you don't really care about, or tidying around the house, but the rest you've got to at least go for 90-95?

and what about sex? giving only 80%'s really gonna make you popular. i mean i know you're married and everything now but that doesn't mean it's ok...

[Chris]

Somehow, recently I've heard this new mantra which is pretty much your whole post contained in a few words:

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

How many things never get done because we can't do them "perfectly"? Good is usually good enough.......

[Jeff R.]

Holy Hannah!
I hope this doesn't apply to the folk who design/build my next motor car - or the surgeon who performs the triple bypass I'll need soon - or the (fill in the obvious blanks)

"Oh! The hip bone's connected to the... myeh, who cares?"

Some tasks don't matter much.
Some do.

We're all glad you're a cartoonist.

[Julien]

I was going to comment but thought... nah.

[Avi Bernshaw]

"For example, it might surprise you to know I’m a better artist than my comic strip indicates – about 20% better."

Damnit, Scott! When I teach classes on cartooning, I tell kids "You don't have to draw that well or be talented. Just look at Scott Adamseseses 'Dilbert', it looks like it was drawn by a retarded lagomorph on crack, and it's one of the most popular cartoons in the world!"
But now you tell us that you can actually do better, which blows my theory out of the water!
I'd tell them about Gary Larson instead, but no one under the age of 23 seems to know who he is.

Ranting aside, would you be kind enough to post some of this better artwork, Scott?
I'm sure a lot of your readers (by which I mean me) would love to see what you really are capable of when you try.

[DRA]

First!!!

[leo]

go lazyness!

[Matt]

i declare this comment "good enou

[DML]

It's like with anything - there's got to be some common sense balance. Absolute crap is unacceptable of course because the output cannot be used. But if every company waited until something was absolutely 100% perfect before making it available for sale, they'd never release anything at all.

100% perfection, while admirable, is simply overkill for most things. "Good enough" is fine and people should stop feeling guilty about "settling".

And there's no absolute scale for perfection for everything. When cleaning my house, 40% effort done once a week is fine. When doing my taxes, 100% perfection once a year is necessary. When writing reports at work, 20% perfection seems be acceptable. :) Etc, etc...

[skraps]

Huzzah to you sir!

[Fitz]

Meh, it'll do.

[Chris Kankiewicz]

I totally 80% agree with you Scott. Throughout my elementary school years I always strove for that 100% in everything I did. Come middle school I had an epiphany and realized I could have a shit-ton more free time and still pass all of my classes with less work than normal. Come high school and my first job and K-mart, this held true and thus far into my college life as well.

Also, to add to this Happiness Ratio theory of yours, I've noticed that if you can't get something done right, all you have to do is make it pretty. People love things that LOOK good whether or not they actually ARE good. One of my favorite examples for this is the iPod. A very pretty little device that is mediocre at it's job and freezes or crashes all too often... yet it's still the number one music player on the market. What is up with people these days?!

[Florin]

And by 3:52 PM, still no comments ;-)

[John-NZ]

Pareto's Law holds true for most situations in life!

[Og the Invincible]

That's a good way of thinking about it. I need to think that way more often. I have problems with my own view of "good enough". I'm getting better, but I've historically been a perfectionist. As a result, little of what I do would satisfy me. I often work extra hard on something, then step back and say, "Hmmm, I could still do more. What if I tried it this way?", and so it would go. In the end, the client I was doing the job for would have been happy had I stopped half way through. It was probably the greatest cause of stress in my life, and it was largely self-induced. The funny thing is, even knowing this, I still can't help myself sometimes...

[Chris]

Learning when you've reached the "good enough" point is one of the most important skills that you can have as an adult. As you point out, too little effort and you're a serial screw-up (or worse) -- too much and you'll drive yourself nuts for no benefit.

If you think about the implications of this idea -- especially for people doing important things like brain surgeons, nuclear plant operators and comic strip authors --you'd think there would be a body of research into this area...

[Dave]

I think that stereotype is probably true 80% of the time, which means it'll hit your sweet spot of producing lots of commentary. But the most successful lawyers, doctors, accountants, business men, and CEOs I know are very detail oriented and the reason is because they love being that way. They may be somewhat neurotic, but they're happier when they're as close to perfect as they can be. That's why they are where they are. I'm a lawyer, and although the last 20% does take at least the effort of the first 80%, there's nothing as satisfying as knowing you are as prepared as it is possible to be.

[NoPantsJim]

As a college student studying for a career as an air traffic controller, I envy those who have the liberty of the 80% rule.

[Keith Wooly]

I'll buy that. It's got a nice mathematical ring to it without being unnecessarily precise.

Can I claim 80% for this comment?

[Peter Huesken]

The master of the 80% rule keeps talking about that extra 20% as if that´s the remaining part.
Actually there´s still 25% of that 80% to achieve; or in other words, if you really want to leave 20% of possible effort, you need to achieve 83,33 rightness...

[Jab it with a Fork]

It was good enough for me, but it's late and I'd rather be in bed, so... I see your point

[rd]

i'd respond earlier but my work PC still hates me
so what was that
oh yeah, i love sushi
california rolls are good too
regarding wbc count, if you are on chemotherapy and myelosupression is present, it is a good thing to rise
botulin shots sound scarier to me then chemo
that schizo link says beware!!! but i don't have cat-pets so no any real threat for me and family
pat-pet sound same to me
hope you won't treat this far from perfection comment like tina's emails

i'd post some clips or pics or whatevar but afraid to spoil your sunday sanctuary

[Steve]

I read about 4/5 of this post (skipping the middle 1/5) and I also declare it "good enough."

[David Byrne]

Hello Pa.. the old 80 20 rule rules!

[David Byrne]

Hello Pa.... The Old 80 20 rule rules...

[concatenator]

Allow me to dispute.

What you think is 80% done, is actually less. How did you determine that it is 80%? You didn't count the number of mistakes and do math on it. I'm confident you didn't do any such thing by your own admission - such neurotica (made it up) would take the effort beyond 80%.

So now, your estimation process itself was less than 100 %, going by your rule, say 80% accurate. Which means the post you estimated as 80% good is actually 80% of 80% good, which is 64 %.

Master of 80-20 Rule? I don't think so.
However, rawness like this is exactly what goes well with my morning grouch.

Judged to a nicety, O Master of 64-36 Rule.
Con Cat E Nator

[Jan]

Excellent post.

This begs two questions:
- Was Pareto happy?
- Is Scott reading "The 4-hour work week"?

[nashman]

I'd like to post a long reply, but this feeble agreement is good eno..

[Bonnie]

While I'm willing to agree with you on most jobs, I must say that there are several occupations that I would prefer the workers strive for 100%. Airline pilots for example, landing safely only 80% of the time does not inspire me towards air travel.

[Tophe]

I know exactly what you mean! In college I had a chemistry class that I attended 5 times - the first day, the 3 days of tests and the final (homework was submitted online). I got a B. I could have attended class another 30+ times and gotten an A, but a B was "good enough". ;-)

[Rickie]

Makes sense to me. x3

[Titch]

I read your blog while listening to Tom Waits and talking to someone on an IM program, I'll probably remember some of it maybe just a little bit.

I consider my reading of your blog 'good enough' I guess this puts us on par.

[technohawk]

I agree with 80% of what you said. To agree with it 100% would require too much thinking for a Sunday.

[Mike]

This sounds roughly analogous to what Richard Gabriel calls "worse is better" or "the New Jersey school of design".

http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html

[David]

I'm sure I'll be about the 100th person to point this out**, but you say your art is 20% better than your comic strip would indicate. But based on your post, I assume you mean it's currently at 80% and could be 100%. That's 25% better. Although I guess a 5% error is within the 80% range.

**I posted this anyway because I have no free will.

[jake]

Good idea. So I figure 80% of a comment is good enou

[Steve]

Wow, you have finally become "elitest". I think that you have become too comfortable with your easy income.
Easy, because you (like me) difine yourself with what you have accomplished and can doodle.
Elitest because you fine your self in the upper 20%.

[Borjan]

Should I welcome myself to the club 80% or should you?

Designing booths for fairs has a pretty similar "imperfection tolerance ratio". My work in 3D shows people how the stand coulda-shoulda-would've looked if they bothered to invest more time and money, so I think I make a living by providing a "mental image" of clients' "perfect exhibition space" on a certain fair and if the builders get it close to 80% - client's satisfied, I'm satisfied and the builders are satisfied.

[L. Silva]

I wondered why I was happy and now I know. I might fudge a little and go to 90 but never higher and only if it suits me at the time.

[Azi]

Your theory is great, but I have a refinement:

People who are happy have a gold ration of 4/5ths for about 4/5ths of the things in their lives. People who are not obsessively perfectionist for at least 1/10th of things in their lives are losers, and those that can't let the last remaining 1/10th go, no matter how awful, are abnormally stressed.

I shall call this the 80/10/10 rule.

Obviously this is based on personal observation and it's bad to generalise, but what the heck? I'm willing to put down good money that there are a handful of things in your life that you absolutely will not tolerate unless they're pretty close to perfect.

[Alex]

I hope my surgeon doesn't follow the "good enough" rule...

[Mark Thorson]

Your philosophy is expressed
much more concisely by the
quote (attributed variously
to Voltaire or Flaubert)
that "The perfect is the
enemy of the good."

[Patti]

I finally found a blog I can read. I never want to commit the time and effort needed to full appreciate a blog. I mean reading someone's useless thoughts day in and day out? I have a life, for heaven's sake! And I have my own useless thoughts and opinions.

But now I have arrived. Digging inside Scott Adams brain? I can't imagine a more perfect use of my useless time and effort.

Consider me a daily reader of your 80% efforts. (And strangely I feel a whole lot less guilty about my own 80% efforts)

Patti

[Theo Bee]

He, He, It's not for nothing these perfectionists aquire the "Anal" title.

Theo

[Carter]

Today is another perfect example. This blog entry is about 80% of where I think it could be. I could work for another hour to get it up to 85%, but it’s Sunday morning and my family has awakened. They beckon.

It's good to see you have your priorties straight. Most people don't. Me included.

[Economist]

The rehashment of 80-20 rule used by managers and consultants.

[Nimrod]

I remember reading somewhere that you're dyslexic. It barely even shows from your blog. Always impressed by that! But maybe I understand the condition wrong :-P

[Erik]

Actually, if you're putting 80% into your comic strip, you could improve it 25% of what you're doing now to get completely full.

That was worth the extra effort for me, to get perfection. I like math. Or I like to pretend I am smart. Something like on of the two.

[MrBongo]

You're right Scott, I'm perfectly content working at 80% of my capacity - in my boxers, at home, no commute, no headaches - yeah, I could probably go the extra mile and own a mansion and a yacht - but why bother....excuse me while I put the steaks on the grill and pop another Corona.

[Chris Foulkes]

I recommend "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less" by Barry Schwartz - a great account of the 80% rule.

[Don]

I love your blog and I love your insights. Thanks for another great post.

[VJ]

This is nice. I loved your comic today

[jcahopwood]

I so agree!

I have been in charge at work and I have been a 'grunt' and I prefer being a grunt - it makes the rest of my life more fun!

I agree with the concept of good enough - good enough leaves room for everything you want, being the best means you have to specify and stick to one thing!

[Sir Mike Tallon]

Whatever's good enough for you may be great for someone else (one person's trash is another person's treasure); your posts are always 100% entertaining.

[Luigi Stugotz]

I first 80% of today's post was pretty interesting. I didn't bother reading the rest.

[Ronald]

Here (in Europe) it is Sunday night, and I should be learning for my last university exam. I actually need to score 4.5 points out of 10, so what I have done so far is good enough. Time to see my better half...

[Ian Smith]

This is just the 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the parato principle, under a different title.

You've even lazy enough to just file off the normal name and call it your own. I'll bet, if I could be bothered, I'd find you reusing comic strip images and poses time and again - cut and paste with just the words changing.

Face it, you're just a lazy slob.

[Lord Foul]

Yes, this is something I know perfectly well.

I am normally inclined to reach more up to 90%, but that´s it.

Then my natural laziness declares loudly "It´s good enough!"

Like with this post: Now that I have reached something about
91% "of what that rubbish could be" I am turning the computer off...

mfg,

Lord Foul

[Ian Smith]

This is just the 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the parato principle, under a different title.

You've even lazy enough to just file off the normal name and call it your own. I'll bet, if I could be bothered, I'd find you reusing comic strip images and poses time and again - cut and paste with just the words changing.

Face it, you're just a lazy slob.

[Michael Casey]

Any vigilant Dilbert reader knows you're just applying your 80/20 rule for percentages, Scott. Nice try.

[Gleetnorx]

If you really wanna get serious about lowering your standards you might think of moving out here.
The Big Island of Hawaii could arguably be the #1 most laid back spot in the US.
We're good to get up to 70%. But we can make it easily on that much, so why bother?
Dilbeert might suffer though, as Hawaiian humor filters into the strip and your drawing style might transmogrify as a result of some of the vapors floating around this place ...
Go surf

[Tom]

I have been living by the motto "good enough is" for years.

[WCE]

Martha Stewart's show was one of my mother's favorites, and one morning I was curious enough to tune-in when nothing else was on.

Martha was baking a cake from scratch.

I figured I'd watch.

After five minutes, the cake was done.

Two minutes later, it was iced.

The program lasted a whole HOUR!!!

I couldn't tear myself away from this exercise in obsessive-compulsive behavior.

After she iced the cake, she started decorating it, first with piping around the top, then around the base, then around the middle of the side, then another row on top...

Then she added sugar-icing roses. She formed each petal individually, one rose after the other. Then, the roses "needed" stems, and she added those. Then, the stems "needed" thorns, and she added those. Then she added leaves to the stems, then added veins to the leaves, then added scalloped edges to the leaves.

Then she added ladybugs to the leaves, including the dots, the legs, and the antennae.

At this point I was simply horrified and I had to stop watching. She still had twenty minutes to go.

There's a lot to say for stopping when you're "close enough".

[rob kay]

hate to say it but I think you set the bar kinda low today.

[kls]

I used to think that the only human being that I would consider changing lives with, was Steve Jobs. However, you've convinced me that he must be quite miserable.

Thank you so much!

[Mike]

Great Post Scott,

This has been on my mind for a while - the perfect marriage of the 80/20 rule and the saying "make progress not perfection". Also, that last 20% takes the most time and costs the most $$.

And while I'm on the subject of 80/20, can't we divide by 10 and just call it the 8/2. Think how much time we'd save on a worldwide aggregate.

Finally, the new firefox has spell check built in - so you don't have to worry about splling.

[Stefan Constantinescu]

You have to wonder, what exactly is 80% of your potential?

I'm trained in the school of thought that we're capable of doing anything we put our mind to, therefore that imaginary cap of 100% doesn't really exist.

[Glenn]

This also reminds me of your "out at five" business plan. I've been wondering for quite a while, could it really, really work? My sincere hope is that it could, but I've never been able to convince myself. Could a company that's satisfied with "good enough" really survive? I'd be willing to work there to find out.

[Glenn]

This also reminds me of your "out at five" business plan. I've been wondering for quite a while, could it really, really work? My sincere hope is that it could, but I've never been able to convince myself. Could a company that's satisfied with "good enough" really survive? I'd be willing to work there to find out.

[Adam StJohn Lawrence]

And there is wisdom.

But sometimes, you have to give 120%. The trick is knowing the difference.

Adam
experiencedesign.de

[Eugene Cox]

I would try to write a lengthened note, stating why I dont get the point, but it wont get me anything. I therefore declare this post sufficient enough.

[cph]

I spent 4 hours worth of work to get an "A-" on a paper and almost 30 hours worth of work on the next paper in the same class to get an "A". I'm a moron. I should have been happy with an "A-".

[Glenn]

Scott, I know many people would say that if everyone had your attitude, nothing important would ever get done. I prefer to think that if everyone had your attitude, we'd all be a lot happier about it. I'd sure like to try.

[Adam Bielinski]

This is so amazing. You just described exactly how I feel about everything I do. Only, instead of "80%" I feel it's more flexible than that. It's probably somewhere along the lines of "Slightly better than the minimum line where anyone will notice I'm doing a poor job".
Perhaps I'm just a serial loser, though.

[Mark]

You get it almost right.
http://liberalorder.typepad.com/the_liberal_order/2007/06/getting_it_almo.html

[Dio]

make just one comic with 100%. just to see what it's like. :)

[zz]

The law of survival for graduate school is "Better done, than good." Worked for me; I got a Ph.D. and at the bottom of my class, too. But my students still call me "Doctor." I think there are some cases where 100%-types are necessary: *real* (physician) doctors, air traffic controllers, president of the U.S.--oh, wait.

[Rodrigo Navarro Pérez]

I'd rather achieve an 80% of the 80% rule, than being "The master of the 80% rule".

[Jeffrey]

This post once again reminded me of why I love this blog - it's essentially my thoughts and opinions expressed and written down by someone else with a lot of listeners (actually, wasn't there a post once here about that same effect of people liking to hear their own ideas from other people?).

But to be fair, our thoughts and opinions do not overlap completely - I'd say it's only about an 80% match.

Meh, good enough.

[Some Moist Robot]

Sounds like the Zen notion of "perfect imperfection".

[Ethan]

I've found that the sweet spot in life is to have a mix of very low and very high standards. I'd put the division at about 80/20 too. It sure is great when other people are spending money on things that you just don't give a rip about. It's like free happiness.

I think that having high standards and expectations in a few areas of life is important, because it gives you something to strive for and something to excel at, above and beyond the people around you. But if you have even moderately high standards for *everything* you are bound to be unhappy most of the time. Also, whatever you spend the bulk of your time doing you have to find a happy medium for. Perfection is best reserved for hobbies, medium-to-high standards for work, low standards for most goodies and "life peripherals".

[Mark Thorson]

On a related subject, I've
noted that 90% of razor cuts
that actually draw blood
occur while going after the
last 10% of the whiskers.

[Sean Daniel]

I totally agree...

[Mike D]

I think this applies to marriage also. My wife is very tolerant of my imperfections. We have been married for 31 years so far.

[Claire]

I think you are full of it. You seem like an over-achiever. People who accept "good enough" don't start their own comic strips. It's too much work.

[René]

Fair enough

[Jennifer]

Can you explain this to my boss? She's never satisfied. Every time I write a report or suggest an idea, she feels that it needs to be formatted a bit differently, or that some system we have that's working fine needs to be completely rethought, redesigned and extensively documented. I, on the other hand, would just like to get something accomplished.

[Buckshot]

Great comments, Scott. I was just sitting here agonizing over the shitty job I did patching some concrete chips in our entryway.

We built our own house and it has mistakes in the sheetrock texturing, the painting, the trip, etc. But each of em are at least 80% good.

So what the hell, I'm enjoying your strip today in my paid-for house that is good enough.

Your comments today were worth a LOT to me. Thanks.

[penetha]

It's a powerful philosophy. It takes discipline, wisdom and restraint. I commend you.

[BillF]

Yep. Contentment is what I shoot for, as well.

The catch is thee fine line between "content" and "complacent."

[Hmm...]

My guess is your head will do the rest its 20% due diligence later on. Won't it?

In my case a thought like a blog post will stay in my head for about a whole day. Like some asynchronous background process. And then I would get notified of errors and warnings - blunders that I made, and things that I should have added. Doesn't that happen to you?

[Shaymaa]

AAAAH, I love this and I was just taking a break from my latest blog redesign - I was thinking of starting from scratch all over again - because it wasn't "perfect".. now, I think I will stick to it and be happy about it.

[Chad]

I second that. It is good enough. And its true, in most cases, 80% is enough.. I just don't want you being my surgeon ;)

.
.
.
Posted by Boraxis Baugmonster:

Ah good enough. I guess that's why you don't go for 81% and fix the by-line layout.

Good enough I keep reading it!

Good enough f