The Perfectionist and the Algorithm

📰 Medium · AI

Learn how perfectionism can impact productivity and decision-making in a data-driven world, and why 'good enough' can be a viable strategy

intermediate Published 14 Apr 2026

Action Steps

Reflect on your own perfectionism and how it affects your work
Identify areas where 'good enough' can be a viable strategy
Set clear goals and deadlines to balance quality and timeliness
Practice iterative development and continuous improvement
Communicate with your team and stakeholders about the trade-offs between quality and speed

Who Needs to Know This

This article is relevant to product managers, data scientists, and software engineers who struggle with perfectionism and need to balance quality with timely delivery. It can help teams prioritize and make decisions more efficiently.

Key Insight

💡 Perfectionism can be a major obstacle to productivity and decision-making, but 'good enough' can be a viable strategy in certain situations

Key Takeaways

Learn how perfectionism can impact productivity and decision-making in a data-driven world, and why 'good enough' can be a viable strategy

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Title: The Perfectionist and the Algorithm

URL Source: https://medium.com/@tiagovillares/the-perfectionist-and-the-algorithm-17705e2c1d92?source=rss------artificial_intelligence-5

Published Time: 2026-04-14T21:04:20Z

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# The Perfectionist and the Algorithm | by Tiago Villares | Apr, 2026 | Medium

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# The Perfectionist and the Algorithm

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_On what it means when “good enough” arrives first_

Ana told me about the email during our second session together.

She’d sent a proposal to a client at eleven forty-seven on a Tuesday night — she remembered the timestamp because she’d checked it the next morning, partly out of embarrassment, partly out of something else she couldn’t name. There were three attachments, each one a version of the same document, each annotated in a different colour. Blue for structure. Green for language. Red for what she called “things that still bother me.” The red was everywhere. In the covering note she wrote: “I know this is late. I just couldn’t send it until it was right.”

The proposal was for a project that didn’t have a budget yet. It was exploratory. The client had asked for something to “think with.” Ana had given them som

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The Perfectionist and the Algorithm

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