The 80% people

Have you ever looked at something you built and wondered if it's good enough? 

I always thought that things you do have a diminishing rate of return after a certain point. And as the completion rate nears 100%, the effort needed to move the needle tends to infinity. At one point, you start wondering if it makes sense to spend more effort on it or just call it a day and be content with the current state. It's a paradoxical situation where for something to be completed perfectly, it requires a seemingly limitless amount of effort. It implies a scenario where the task, while finished, demands continuous and unbounded exertion, in order to maintain perfection.

That's where the 80% rule comes in - at some point you realize that no matter how much effort you physically put in something, it barely moves the needle. This is the point where the curve it at its peak and it requires extraordinary efforts to make a difference. So, you call it a day and be content with what you've got, which is mostly north of 80% of the thing you started out to achieve. Pretty good I'd say, but I know some will disagree.

It's choosing imperfect happiness over a toiling perfection. You need to remind yourself that you are the one in-charge of your situation - you need to call the shots. You know what it is like to put everything you have into something and feeling the frustration of not being able to make a difference. You can just take solace in the fact that you did everything in your power to move the needle but sometimes, expectations do not match and that's okay.

I'm choosing to believe in light at the end of the tunnel right now. Not because I need to but because I want to.

©2025 Aman Gupta