Whew that title

Just barely good enough is perfect. Anything more is a waste.

Did this person reply to herself, or just her own doppelgänger?

I've said basically to my boss at the shitty megacorp like "if I go out of my way to fix things and do more work, I get the same outcome as not doing any of that. You don't give me paid holidays. You pay entry level wages. We both know I'm going to be laid off in December. So why would I?"

Capitalist hell-scape. Working to make some unseen ghouls rich.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.

As in, if it's worth doing you don't need to do it right, or perfect. I just needs to get done.

I was once studying for an anatomy exam with one of the smartest people I've ever met.

At around four hours into the session we convinced ourselves that there were four kinds of muscle, and then started checking the book for the fourth kind.

100% effort sabotaged us.

The goal of engineering isn't adding everything possible. It's taking everything possible away while still accomplishing the goal. This applies just as well to life.

Noted advice columnist Carolyn Hax is not replying to herself lol

I'm more of a do it right or don't do it at all kind of person. There's no point in creating more work.

That's kind of the beauty of this post though. Half assing something isn't necessarily doing something wrong. "Good enough" is usually just that, and further effort is a waste.

When I went out of my way to fix things and make it better, I ended up getting promotions, but YMMV.

Unless the definition of half assing has changed it's not doing it good enough. It usually just means the work will have to be done again in the near future because it was done poorly the first time.

Seek perfection for pleasure, i.e. when you are engaging in a hobby.

Everything else, good enough is enough.

I just got a bit of praise and more work

And everyone clapped too

Perfect is the enemy of good, as they say

The way it worked for me:

Go out of my way to make things better -> get promotion and pay raise -> go out of my way to make things better again -> no promotion or pay raise -> do the absolute bare minimum -> big pay raise

Maybe they thought I enjoyed improving processes just to do it and saw it takes money to keep me doing it once I stopped.

Or maybe the forces that determine whether I get more money are beyond my understanding.

This only works of you at talented enough that half passing things is enough

To keep in spirit with the post, the solution there would be to lower the bar so whatever you're doing could be half / quarter assed. Ass and tray aint getting any bigger; need to adjust the serving sizes.

Some people have a direction but never reach any destination.

The real secret to life is to understand how little ass you can put into a thing and still get by.

One person's "half-ass" is another person's perfection:

James T. Kirk: Mr. Spock, have you accounted for the variable mass of whales and water in your time re-entry program?
Spock: Mr. Scott cannot give me exact figures, Admiral, so... I will make a guess.
James T. Kirk: A guess? You, Spock? That's extraordinary.
Spock: [to McCoy] I don't think he understands.
Leonard McCoy: No, Spock. He means that he feels safer about your guesses than most other people's facts.
Spock: Then you're saying... it is a compliment?
Leonard McCoy: It is.
Spock: Ah. Then I will try to make the best guess I can.

When I was growing up I got told I should think like a business, so when it comes to work I think like a business. I negotiate as high of a wage I can get, I do as little as possible and at every step I tell everyone how hard I'm working.

Outside of work I completely reject that lesson because life is more than the maximization of the capitalist ideal.

That, coupled with putting a reasonable level of ass into things that actually improve your life. That does not necessarily mean increasing your money. Often the opposite!

Its sad we live in a world where we have to ration our asses. I hope someday to live in a world where I can more freely share my ass with any and all who desire it. But today, alas, it is not that day

Yes, the guy that slopped an entire tube of rtv on his oil drain bolt instead of replacing the worn out crush washer was just another person's perfection. Didn't even fix the leak.

The guy that kept slapping unions on the septic tank output because the pipe kept breaking was saving a ton of time doing the same thing four times. If he had done it right and dug down the line he would have found the stump that someone else half assing had buried on top of the line when it was installed.

Why would anyone waste their own time and other's time like this?

Also your Star Trek example is doing the best you can with what you have, and not doing a half ass job even though you were capable of doing a good job. A half ass job would be getting the whales and not bothering to get the water.

why half-ass when you can third-ass or quarter-ass or fifth-ass?

If you are at risk of losing your job and have no financial security half assing things it is not an option.

The original post strikes me as privileged in more than one way. Not everyone is equally gifted and not everyone can afford the risk of being punished for their carelessness.

I taught my kids our family motto when they were just 6 and 4. “He who puts his nose too hard to the grindstone gets bits of shredded nose in his flour.”

It’s served us all well for many many years.

Yeah I mean obviously dont get fired, but also most people overestimate how much effort they need to put in. Scale back slowly to limit test.

I had already learned this lesson, but then I changed careers, thought it might be different in the new industry, and I got sabotaged by a nepobaby.

we need a 5 ass monkey!

My goal in life is to not work hard. I take care of what I need to in order to not struggle and enjoy my time I'm not working. House isn't spotless. Grass sometimes gets over 4 inches long and it grows whatever it wants. Car is old and dependable. Never keep up with the Jones's. I hike, fish, and play videogames and watch TV and camp.

anything worth doing is worth half-assin'

People dont get this. I dont want to climb. I dont want to achieve anything, really. Im here against my will, so im gonna maximize the amount of time i can fuck off.

I think my ideal life is to accidentally stumble onto like 2 million dollars and live my life as a jacked hermit, persuing whatever hobbies i have that week.

The only possible promotion from my position is to manager and I don't want to be in a leadership position.

Where im from that guarantees you never get promoted. To get promoted you need to fuck up so badly (also be the bosses friend too) that you get promoted away from where you can cause damage.

One's salary and career will advance more quickly by job hopping. Loyalty isn't just no longer encouraged — it's actively punished. You'll get a pay cut every year despite your productivity going up.

K.I.S.S.

The exception to this is a strong union

"Never half-ass two things. Just whole-ass one thing." - Ron Swanson