Perfection is expensive (in fact, it’s not possible!)

Perfection is expensive (in fact, it's not possible!)

"Perfection is expensive. The last 5 percent of quality almost always costs a disproportionate amount of time and money." - James Clear

"Seek success, not perfection." - Alan Weiss

When I give presentations on data management, I almost always mention this concept. Too often we're caught up in the idea that if our data isn't perfect it is, by definition, bad or wrong.

But the truth is, our data can never be perfect, and by holding ourselves to that standard, we're always going to be disappointed. And worse, holding that standard is often an excuse to avoid improving the data itself. "If I can't get this perfect, why bother trying?"

So remember, your data will always be imperfect. But that doesn't mean it's not useful. And it doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to and work for the cleanest data we can achieve.

Just don't let the elusive goal of perfection stop you from being successful.

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

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Motion vs. Action

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In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits (I recommend it!), he discusses the concept of motion vs. action. […]

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I’ve written about this before, but apparently I have to keep repeating it. If you’ve […]

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January 31, 2019

Who Do You Trust I was reading an article recently about Warren Buffet’s “rules” for […]

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It’s impossible to measure progress if you don’t know your starting point. This sounds axiomatic, […]

You’ll make incorrect decisions. Acknowledge them and fix it.

January 17, 2019

A client of mine recently wrote the following to me: “It’s so hard to set […]

"Experience is unobservable to everyone except the person who it happens to."

January 10, 2019

In Dan Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness, he writes: “Experience is unobservable to everyone except […]

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