Startup Learnings: Nirvana Fallacy

Here's O3's definition:

Nirvana fallacy: rejecting a workable solution because it isn’t perfect—an easy way to stall real progress while chasing an imaginary ideal.

This is a common pitfall that engineers like me run into

"But it won't work in this edge case"

"But did you consider this situation that's only going to occur if 5 other things happen in a row?"

This line if thinking is important when you're designing system for scale

If you're working at Google with 1 billion users, even a 0.1% error rate impacts 1 million users. Not tolerable. Edge cases matter

At a startup with 5 users? This line of thinking can mark death

It's important to understand edge cases. But thinking through and dealing with each and every one? You're going to slow down and fail to execute.