The Age of Good Enough

Hello!

It’s Thursday, 16^th October 2025. Welcome back to Bold Efforts, my weekly letter on the future of work and living. Let’s start with a story.

In 1879, Thomas Edison’s lab looked more like a junkyard than the birthplace of modern light. Wires tangled on every table. Glass littered the floor. His team was exhausted, the air thick with failure. They had tried and failed more than a thousand times to find a filament that wouldn’t burn out. When he finally discovered one that lasted long enough to be useful, it wasn’t perfect. It was good enough. And that changed everything.

History is full of moments like this. Moments when progress came not from perfection, but from persistence. The pyramids were (and still are) misaligned by inches, yet they stood for millennia. Gutenberg’s first press jammed constantly. The Wright brothers’ plane flew for only twelve seconds. None of it was flawless, but each was a turning point. Each moved humanity forward.

Perfection, in contrast, is the fantasy of control. It makes us believe that enough polishing can erase uncertainty. But the world doesn’t reward the ones who wait. It rewards the ones who show up when things are still rough, when the odds are unclear, when failure is more likely than applause.

Good enough is not mediocrity. It’s momentum. It’s the courage to release your work into the wild before it feels finished. Because the truth is, you can’t perfect what you haven’t shared. Feedback sharpens ideas. Reality teaches lessons that theory never will. The longer you wait to act, the less your work belongs to the world. And the more it belongs to your fear.

Nature itself operates on this principle. Evolution doesn’t seek perfection. It tinkers, tests, and adapts. Most mutations fail. Some survive. A few thrive. Over millions of years, those tiny iterations build everything we call life. Progress has never been elegant. It’s always been messy, and probably that’s what makes it real.

The myth of perfection is seductive because it hides behind virtue. It tells you that you’re chasing quality when you’re really avoiding exposure. It convinces you that waiting will make things better, when it only robs you of time. The people who achieve mastery are rarely the ones who get it right the first time. They’re the ones who get it wrong fast enough to learn.

Edison knew this. “I haven’t failed” he said. “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. That mindset built the light bulb, and arguably the modern world. The willingness to iterate in public is what separates dreamers from builders.

Fast forward to today. SpaceX rockets explode on live streams. Apple prototypes leak and get ridiculed. The recent Meta demo-day was a disaster. Software ships with bugs. Yet each version gets better. Each failure becomes a step forward. The companies that dominate the world aren’t chasing perfect. They’re compounding good enough.

So start before it’s flawless. Publish before it’s polished. Build before it’s certain. Maybe there is some truth to the old saying “perfect is the enemy of progress”. Thank you for reading!

Best,
Kartik

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Who am I?
I’m Kartik, founder of Polynomial Studio, a holding company and product studio building AI-driven businesses for the future of work. The way we work and live is being rewritten. AI, remote work, and shifting economic forces are reshaping careers, businesses, and entire industries. The big question is where it’s all heading.

For the past eight years, I’ve been at the forefront of these shifts, working across real estate, technology, startups, and corporate strategy. I’ve helped businesses navigate change and stay ahead of what’s next, always focused on understanding the forces shaping our future and how we can use them to build something better. Click here to know more about me.

Why Bold Efforts?
I started Bold Efforts because I believe work should fit into life, not the other way around. Too many people are stuck in outdated systems that don’t serve them. This newsletter is about challenging the status quo and making the effort to design work around life. It brings together bold ideas and actionable insights to help you build a healthier, more balanced relationship with work, leading to greater purpose and fulfillment. If you’re looking for fresh perspectives on how to work and live better, you’re in the right place.

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