Good Enough

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien."
"The Best is the enemy of the Good"
- Voltaire

Sometimes I get stuck in planning, lost in a tyranny of choices available to me. Barry Schwartz explains this well in his excellent book "The Paradox of Choice," where he looks at the phenomenon that, up to a certain point, an increase in available choice correlates with an increase in satisfaction around any decision we make around these choices (because we have a chance to consider the factor of 'quality').

However, after that, the increasing number of choices produces diminishing returns in terms of satisfaction around any decision we make. Every decision we make, when we have that many more choices, also leaves us with so many more burnt bridges; something which we experience as painful.

I am interested in moving away from the pursuit of the Best; the way this can sometimes immobilise me from making decisions about anything, such as finding a job, reading a book about any given topic, or indeed, being satisfied with a lover or a friend just the way they are. When I'm constantly nervous about the existence of the Better or the Best (which, sneakily, always seems to be other than who I already am or what I currently have), I start to ignore the implicit perfection of the Good.

The Perfection of the Good, which comes from being able to limit the scope of my desires (a classically Stoic move), which in turn, renders all that is Good in my life into the Perfect manifestations of my humble needs, sated.