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What's a quote that has stuck with you for your whole life?
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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“Never stop at the first right answer”
There are multiple solutions to every problem, and the first one you come up with is unlikely to be the best.
On the other hand, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”
This is a weird application of that quote, but I remember when Avengers: Infinity War came out and there were people saying that Thanos was right, and his decision to kill half of all beings would, in fact, lead to less starvation and poverty. And I got in an argument where I said, "You may be right that Thanos's was a valid solution. But there is not fucking way in hell that it was even close to the best, or even a good solution! Just because you think of something that works first doesn't mean you should always go with that!"
It's not even a good solution. Take, for example, Earth. Half the people are gone. We're at about 8 billion people now. Know when we were at half that? 1973. This solution puts the clock back by 50 years, causes a lot of pain and strife, and Thanos (and most people on earth) would likely have lived long enough to see the correction he made undone. When a solution that drastic doesn't solve the problem for even a lifetime, it doesn't even approach being a good one.
Or the better.
Well... Is it though? Sometimes for simple things, the first solution is the best solution. Ruminating over it is pointless.