For Mentors Only: Inspiring Youth

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by petek

I have a pet motto I keep trying to remind myself which I think is relevant:

Better is the enemy of good enough.

I bet a lot of us (mentors and students) got into this line of work first because we wondered how things work, and stayed in it because we thought "I can make that work better". Thus starts a life-long battle between perfection and time. So far, time is ahead.

In my office we call that "analysis paralysis". In addition to using the quote above. Sometimes you can get so focused opn a problem you can't see it clearly anymore. At that point a good engineer will ask for assistance from someone whom is outside the situation and can look at it more objectively.

Sometimes our paradigms blind us from seeing the alternate solution because it is outside our understanding. That is why we never saw the solution that now seems so obviously simple.