That’s good enough
Posted on August 29, 2007 - Filed Under Housing |
There are times when putting in 100% just isn’t worth it.
The wood in the house is suffering from alligator syndrome. The shellac was applied too
thick and over the years it has cracked. Every piece of wood trim has been infected.
In one "pay per job", the instructions were simple: strip the trim, re-coat the wood with stain and polyurethane. This trim follows the edge between the walls and the ceiling in the living room/dining room area.
After eight hours, the trim was stripped and the stain was dry. Per the directions, the first coat was to be buffed. Then, a second coat needed to be applied.
To strip the trim and after drying, the trim looked fantastic. In total, it was about 8 hours to complete the work. And this point, a decision had to be made whether to do the second coat or not.
The order was issued: stop.
If you have a starting point (let’s call it zero) and a finish point (100%), we were sitting at 80% complete. That 80% was the stripping and staining. To complete the project would require another 8 hours to get to that 100% point. Is that additional 20% really necessary to finish the job?
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Here is the finished product: |
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The trim is going up, nearly 8 feet from the floor. Unless you’re the world’s tallest man who will notice?
Obviously there are those who will pound their fist on the table screaming "No! You must do all the work or it’s going to look like crap!"
In response, I say "Calm down and eat a Twinkie."
There are cases where you don’t want the hired help to only do 80%.
Here are some cases which come to mind.
Surgeon: OK, we got about 80% of the tumor out. That’s good enough.
Airline Mechanic: The engine needs 10 bolts to hold it to the wing. We got eight. That’s good enough.
I will make September 1.
If you liked that post, then try these...
Kitchen Update: Granite Tops and Cabinets on December 5th, 2007
Believe it or nuts, progress has been made on the back house.
PEX Plumbing on July 10th, 2007
Clifford: The plumbing underneath is shot.
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“we were sitting at 80% complete…To complete the project would require another 8 hours…Is that additional 20% really necessary to finish the job?”
Law of Diminishing returns:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns
“in a production system with fixed and variable inputs, beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less additional output. ”
See also “Bang for the Buck”.
Beyond a certain point, the additional costs (time, $$$) aren’t worth the (marginally) better result.
“Obviously there are those who will pound their fist on the table screaming”
Let *them* go broke.
- pasadena