Wednesday, March 9, 2011

“The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good”

I think Dave MacLeod’s article about “climbing messy” is making the same point as Voltaire when he said something along the lines of “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

“Obviously we can’t go around hoping for one of those once in a lifetime moments to happen right now. We need to find a way to climb well and be comfortable with our performance on a daily basis. It’s fine to try and keep everything clean and optimal. It’s the eternal game of the athlete. But accept that no matter how much you try, you dealing with something that is inherently messy (life) and you will never win.”

 

(The original quote in French is "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.", from Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764).)

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