EP252 The Perfection Trap in the Trades With Eric Kaiser (December 2025)

Quotes from the episode:

"Good enough isn't a fixed point. It's a moving target shaped by goals, expectations, and consequences."

"Perfection can push us forward, but it can also quietly pull us off track."

"If I delivered what I promised, in the time promised, using the resources promised, that is good enough for me."

"The real skill is knowing when extra effort adds value and when it just adds ego."

 

In this solo monologue episode, Eric Kaiser explores a deceptively simple question: Can good enough be perfect? Drawing on years of experience in the trades, Eric reflects on how deeply perfectionism runs in technical work and how it can both elevate quality and quietly work against efficiency, clarity, and outcomes.

 

Using a favorite quote from Dan Holohan, Eric reframes "good enough" not as mediocrity, but as work that meets the right goals, expectations, and time horizons. He walks through practical parameters that define when good enough truly is perfect, including the intended lifespan of the work, customer and regulatory expectations, available resources, and the real consequences of pushing beyond what the situation requires.

 

Eric closes by offering a simple but powerful three-question test to evaluate our own work: 

 

Did I deliver what was promised? 

 

Was it done in the promised timeframe? 

 

And did I use the promised resources?

 

If the answer is yes to all three, then maybe, just maybe, the work was perfectly good enough.

 

 

This episode was recorded in December 2025.