[HN Gopher] Good enough is good enough (2013)
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Good enough is good enough (2013)
Author : hypertexthero
Score : 41 points
Date : 2024-04-30 17:42 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ep2013.europython.eu)
(TXT) w3m dump (ep2013.europython.eu)
| m0llusk wrote:
| Is there really conflict here? It seems like good enough is an
| obvious first or second step, but over time experiences
| accumulate to the point where one more iteration of good enough
| comes to approximate perfection.
| aflag wrote:
| Close enough to perfection. Good enough.
| wiredfool wrote:
| Alex Martelli's talks are always worth watching.
| throwitaway222 wrote:
| I get the gist and agree to some degree, but two stories down
| from this one is hackers that stole UHG data...
|
| Was that good enough? Someone thought so at the time.
| angry_moose wrote:
| I think there always needs to be a distinction between
| "underdeveloped and unfinished" and "broken and insecure".
|
| I don't care if v0.1 is still lacking features and the GUI is
| wonky. I'm usually fine with this being called "good enough".
|
| I care a lot if v0.1 crashes on launch, half the features in
| the release notes don't work (or even exist), and it leaks my
| passwords as plaintext. As a user this is never "good enough".
|
| In most conversations those both get lumped together in the
| move-fast-and-break-things mindset. Though to be fair, the
| original article is largely talking about the former.
| 4ndrewl wrote:
| How do you know they didn't think it was perfect and needed no
| improvement?
| navigate8310 wrote:
| In this day and age of perfectionism, being good enough to push
| out half-baked software is definitely cash-grab, especially when
| it cones to gaming and pre-orders.
| chasd00 wrote:
| engineering is the science of good enough.
| vrosas wrote:
| life is the art of good enough.
| jp57 wrote:
| I think a corollary to the problem of seeking perfection is the
| notion that there is always a global optimum and that we must be
| seeking it: a kind of fallacy of the One True Way(tm). Implicit
| belief in One True Way(tm) shows up in many places, like the
| adoption of "best practices", rather than "preferred practices",
| or merely conventions. Also in the undertone of many discussions
| that assume that if there are two solutions to a problem, then
| (at least) one must be suboptimal.
|
| The concept that I have started leaning on in development is
| "satisficing"[0], i.e. finding the first solution that satisfies
| some criteria for acceptability. My new (tacit) motto is
| "satisfice first, then only optimize if needed."
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Years ago some big-name VC or another tweeted "Good enough sucks"
| and got a ton of attention and praise for their keen insight and
| commitment to quality. I remember rolling my eyes and thinking,
| "If it sucks, it wasn't good enough".
| wuj wrote:
| I think this sentiment only applies to certain products. A
| software like Slack can get away with being good enough. Self-
| driving softwares like Tesla's FSD? Not so much. There are
| certain engineering solutions that aren't viable without being
| perfect. People expect them to be perfect.
| kardianos wrote:
| Here's a physical engineering secret: all things are built to
| be "good enough", all things are a trade-off, all things have
| requirements they must fulfill. The products and cars you buy
| all are built with tolerances. Your hot dogs can only contain
| so many rat feces; they aren't perfect.
| wuj wrote:
| From a builder's perspective, yeah, everything is built with
| a tolerance. It's just that many users are not aware of those
| requirements, or lack thereof. Would you feel comfortable
| eating a hot dog knowing it contains any rat feces?
| cooper_ganglia wrote:
| I already do, every time I eat a hotdog.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| The apocryphal "a delayed game is eventually good" quote seems
| relevant here. SaaS users tend to be more forgiving of
| iterative improvements than gamers are, to pick just one
| example.
| wuj wrote:
| SaaS users are going for the utility, whereas gamers are
| going for the immersive experience. The fault tolerance are
| different for those two use cases.
| qwertox wrote:
| Most of the "temporary fixes" to my hobbyist projects are good
| enough and stay as the implemented solution for over a decade.
| Nobody gets harmed or even dies if they break, which might be the
| most important criteria for not settling with "it's good enough".
| xg15 wrote:
| I'd like to see some qualification of "Good enough", "Good enough
| for what exactly?" - what priority/stakeholder/scenario are you
| using for deciding when it's "good enough"?
|
| Is it good enough to enable users to get their work done?
|
| Is it good enough to make a profit?
|
| Is it good enough to satisfy investors?
|
| Those all lead to quite different outcomes.
| hollander wrote:
| Boeing joined the chat...
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