On: If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly

[david-given]

I've always preferred Douglas Adams' version: Some things you should care enough about to do badly.

[ctdonath → david-given]

He also wrote it as: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... does at least make the reassuring claim, that where it is inaccurate it is at least definitively inaccurate.

I've paraphrased it as if I'm going to be wrong, I shall strive to be DEFINITIVELY wrong which has proven very helpful advice.

[Terr_ → ctdonath]

I find myself thinking of the different between:

"Look at this cool code-trick I found... Maybe it's good?"

"Look at this cool code-trick I found... Warning: Despite the cool part, it actually contains several subtle and horrifying flaws and no sane person should ever trust it in production."

[ggchappell → david-given]

Do you have a source for that?

EDIT. Perhaps it's really Terry Pratchett?

From Carpet People:

> If he concentrated, he could just hear Pismire playing the fluteharp; it was easy to tell, even with all the other instruments in the Deftmenes' own band, by the way the notes went all over the place without ever hitting the tune. Pismire always said there were some things you should care about enough to do badly.

Source: http://www.chrisjoneswriting.com/carpet-people.html

[mxtopher → david-given]

Readability, there it is.