When good enough is the right answer
Polishing past the point of usefulness is its own kind of waste. Knowing when to stop is as important as knowing how to build.
Craft matters, and this whole blog argues for building things well. But there's a failure mode on the other side: polishing something far past the point where the extra effort changes any outcome. Perfect is sometimes just expensive.
Diminishing returns are real
The first 80% of quality often takes 20% of the effort, and the last refinements take the rest — for gains nobody notices. For an internal tool five people use, the difference between good and flawless is usually time better spent on the next problem.
Match effort to stakes
The skill is judgment: a payment system or a public flagship deserves obsessive care; an internal report that works deserves to ship. Good enough isn't an excuse for sloppiness — it's recognizing where additional polish stops buying anything real.
Perfect is the right target for some things and pure waste for others. The skill is telling which is which.