Debbie Goddard is a true Minnesotan

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… even if she’s not from Minnesota. Because we have a saying here: “It’s good enough.” This philosophy works great. If we figure out the exact optimal amount of effort to put into something, then put in just a little bit less effort, we get the job done in a way that saves a buck or two and lets us suffer just a little bit. Like good Norwegian Bachelor Farmers should.

But perhaps that’s not what Debbie was getting at in her latest essay: Fortune Cookie Consideration: Letting Things Be “Good Enough”

…, it can be easy to focus on the flaws and ignore the successes. When I reflect on myself and on my place in life, particularly during this downer time of year, I can be pretty critical. I think of ways that I should be better, of ways that my life circumstances could be better…

Go read it.

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4 thoughts on “Debbie Goddard is a true Minnesotan

  1. I like it!

    There’s an old, stupid saying: “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”

    Trebuchet’s corollary: Some things are not worth doing, but we’re required to do them anyway. (Status reports for inept management come to mind.) Don’t worry about doing them well.

  2. I tell my help I want a “solid ‘B’ effort”. I don’t want 100% because that implies that you drop dead shortly thereafter. Salmon and cuttlefish give 100% and then die. Getting rid of the bodies, and filling out paperwork, is always a pain. Give 85% of what you think 100% is and it will be good enough.

    I don’t want perfect. I want ‘just good enough’ with a little margin to spare.

  3. That’s a helpful concept to understand; it’s something I thought about again today while trying to get through a pile of e-mails from the weekend. I can’t answer each with a masterpiece, or I’ll never get through them all! And I have a lot of work to do, sheesh.

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