The Last 20%

I used to think building something excellent was really just about having great ideas and strong intuition. After years of building things and learning more how things are made, I've found there's a consistent gap between good things and truly excellent ones. That gap usually is in the 20% of work that most people skip out on.

Yes 20%. Not 10%, 50%, or even 5%. You see, it's fairly straightforward to get an idea to 80%. It can take a lot of work to get to 80% even, but the final stretch many ideas never the light of day of is iteration.

You can get pretty far with good instincts, but what always pushes something from good to excellent is the ability to take feedback from everywhere and somehow make sense of all these different perspectives. Sometimes these voices conflict, and that's when we have to make difficult decisions and understand trade-offs.

The trick is finding the right balance between conviction and flexibility. I've watched people get stuck in analysis paralysis, endlessly debating every decision. And I've seen others barrel forward without ever questioning their assumptions only to find they weren't quite on-the-money too late. The sweet spot lies somewhere in between – having strong opinions but remaining open to being wrong.

"Strong ideas, loosely held" is sort of a version of this I've heard on this before, but it's really less about you personally feeling strongly or not about a specific idea, and more that an idea can be "default alive" while also being able to receive criticism and feedback.

It's a fine balance. Because at some point, you have to actually decide on something before you're able to iterate on it. Making excellent things usually means committing to a direction until either you've made something the world genuinely needs, or you realize it's time to revisit previous assumptions and pivot.

Anyone anyone does ultimately is an educated guess. No matter how tenured you are, no matter how smart you are, you're always just guessing.

The difference between good and excellent often comes down to how quickly you can learn and adapt from your best guesses, finding the best possible solution in whatever time allotment you have.

This takes dedicated time, thoughtful planning, as well as a willingness to be open to listen and keep pushing when most would say "good enough." Becoming proficient at this simply requires learning how to catch things earlier and adapt more quickly.

Having an good idea or even making an idea is definitely an important step, but it's important to remember the space between "good enough" and "can't imagine the world without it" cannot be spanned on your own.