Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

Never Try to Be an A+

Most everyone wants to become or make good.  That is OK.  And, that is that. Try to be perfect or to become the single best is very risky as well as painful.

        Painful---you know that already.
        Risky---you may fail even to be good.

Why's that? Because we all are human beings --- we cannot do everything well: we cannot be always right. Simply put, you'd better learn to be satisfied with a B+ or Ao, not necessarily with an A+. That is life!

We almost always take the second best in our society, too. And nothing around us is perfect. Refer to the following popular sayings :

1) Every coin has two tails.
       Meaning every one, except for you soul mate, has an ugly (weak, dishonest, shameful, or dark) side as well as a pretty one.

2) There is no alternative aka TINA.
        That's Thatcherite mantra meaning the free-market system is the better choice, not the best. 

3) Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.
        By Winston Churchill

4) The best is the enemy of the good.
        By Voltaire

5) 孫子曰, 無所不備, 卽無所不寡
To be prepared everywhere is to be weak everywhere."
         By Sun-tzu 

6) 子夏曰, 大德不踰閑 小德出入可也 
Minor errors are acceptable as long as the big picture is in good shape. 
         By a Confucian disciple    

7) 구더기 무서워 장못 담그랴?
Fearful of worms, you cannot make soy sauce. 
        A Korean saw

After all,
- No one, including your mom, is perfect.
- No policy is flawless.-> The law of unintended consequences 
- No theory holds always true.    
- No market is totally efficient.
- Nothing is completely anything. (Eugene Fama, 2010)

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