The Philosophy of Mediocrity

There's a joke in the family that I'm a socialist. If we knew any actual socialists, they'd be offended by the idea; much as how Wester Europe laughs at how Joe Biden is labeled "leftist" by the right, the US population is far more capitalist than the EU average, and myself included.

The thing is that I'm not anti-capitalist. I'm anti-lassez-faire-economics. Capitalism, like any system, has perverse incentives. Where most Western countries recognizes and try to mitigate these behaviors, free-market economics either ignores or rationalizes them.

One of the many concepts that have evolved in business is the idea of "Just Good Enough." Like many reductionist philosophies, this one is based on the idea that "perfect is the enemy of good." That is, you can fail by constantly striving for perfection. This business philosophy asserts that you should strive to only build for "good enough," so that you can make it to market and start selling.

I call this "the philosophy of mediocrity," and believe it's one of the core failings of modern capitalism.

• Things don't last
• Airplanes, medical devices, etc.
• Cure for cancer