Voltaire: Perfect is the Enemy of Good (The Philosophy of Shipping)

In 1772, the French Enlightenment writer Voltaire wrote a poem called La Bégueule (The Prude). In it, he scribbled a line that would become the most important rule in modern software development:

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." (The best is the enemy of the good.)

Voltaire was not a software engineer, but he understood human nature. He knew that the desire for "Perfection" is often just a mask for fear.

In the engineering world, we call this Gold Plating. We refuse to ship a feature because the code isn't "elegant" enough yet. We delay a launch because we want to add "just one more" edge case handler. We convince ourselves we are maintaining High Standards. Voltaire would tell us we are just Procrastinating.

1. The Curve of Diminishing Returns

Why is the "Best" the enemy? Because the cost of "Best" is infinite, but the value of "Good" is finite.

In software, the first 80% of the value takes 20% of the time. The final 20% of the value (the "Perfection") takes 80% of the time.

The Executive Lesson: If you wait until your product is perfect to release it, you have waited too long.

• While you are polishing the code, your competitor is stealing your customers.
• While you are optimizing for 10 million users, you have 0 users.
• Perfection is a hypothesis. You think you know what perfect looks like. But until you ship, you are just guessing.

2. Candide: "Cultivate Your Garden"

Voltaire’s most famous work, Candide, ends with a profound lesson on focus. After traveling the world and listening to philosophers debate the "Best of all possible worlds," the protagonist Candide finally rejects all the grand theories. He concludes with a simple instruction:

"Il faut cultiver notre jardin." (We must cultivate our garden.)

The Application: In a tech company, it is easy to get lost in abstract debates.

• "Should we migrate to Rust?"
• "Is this architecture truly Hexagonal?"
• "What is our 5-year AI strategy?"

These are distractions. They are "Grand Theories." Voltaire advises us to stop debating the metaphysics of the code and Cultivate the Garden.

• Fix the bug that is annoying the user today.
• Ship the feature that solves a problem today.
• Clean the tech debt in the module you are touching today.

Pragmatism beats Dogmatism. Action beats Theory.

3. The Difference Between "MVP" and "Trash"

There is a danger here. Lazy engineers use Voltaire as an excuse to ship garbage. "Voltaire said perfect is the enemy of good, so I didn't write unit tests!"

This is a misunderstanding. "The Good" (Le Bien) implies that the thing works. It provides value. It is stable. "The Best" (Le Mieux) implies unnecessary ornamentation.

The Voltaire Test:

• Does it solve the user's problem? Yes.
• Will it crash? No.
• Is the code "beautiful"? No.
• SHIP IT.

If you are delaying shipment to fix a bug, that is Quality Control. If you are delaying shipment to refactor a working class because "it looks ugly," that is Vanity.

4. How to Lead a Voltaire Culture

As a leader, you set the tempo. If you punish every small mistake, you will create a culture of Perfectionism (Paralysis). To create a culture of "Shipping":

1. Define "Good Enough" Explicitly: Before the sprint starts, define the "Definition of Done." Once that is met, ship. Do not let scope creep in.
2. Reward Iteration, Not Launches: Don't throw a party for the "Big Bang" launch (which takes 2 years). Throw a party for the team that ships to production every day.
3. The "Revert" Button: Make it safe to be imperfect. If you have a fast rollback system, the risk of shipping imperfect code drops to near zero. You can afford to be Voltaire when you have a "Undo" button.

Summary

We live in an industry obsessed with "Optimization." But you cannot optimize something that does not exist.

Voltaire teaches us that the act of Creation is messy. It is imperfect. The "Best" is a fantasy that lives in your head. The "Good" is a product that lives in the hands of your users.

Don't let the dream of the Ferrari stop you from shipping the Skateboard. Cultivate your garden. Ship the code.