# Knowing and Doing the Minimum By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-12-15 It is important to know the minimum level of acceptable performance. This does not mean that one should shoot for this. It simply means that one should know what that minimum level is. There is a difference between knowing and doing the minimum. Some might reject this, saying that determining the minimum is a step in intending to produce the minimum. This could be the case, but it doesn’t have to be. Determining the minimum is important in figuring out one’s trade space. We all face competing demands. Not everything can receive one’s best effort. Some things need to be done exceptionally well. Other things need only to be done passably well. Each activity has its desired level of performance and its minimally acceptable level. In general, knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Figuring out these two levels of performance allows one to optimize outcomes. An organization may hold the value of “excellence in all we do.” This might be motivating, but it isn’t efficient. There is much-wasted effort in excellence in all one does. Excellence is sometimes essential and beneficial. Sometimes, excellence can be gratuitously excessive. Coaches of sporting teams that are ahead by a large margin often start playing the C and D teams against an opponent so that those players can get some game time and so that the opponent isn’t completely decimated. Somebody pursuing excellence (in-game victory) would pile on, maximizing the point spread. Excellence is a tricky goal. It can be challenging because we are rarely engaged in only one thing. In the sporting example, the coach wants the team to win and be good sports. There is a tradeoff. There are nearly always tradeoffs. Knowing the minimum is important to make informed tradeoffs among how we are engaged personally and professionally. Know the minimum; do your best*. _*Given the constraints of the situation_ #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Effort]] [[Tradeoffs]] [[Performance]] [[Knowledge]]