The Covidization of Good Enough

July 14, 2020

I have written numerous times about the zippy young PhD with an attitude. After my talk about declining “findability”, Zippy (not his real name) spoke with me after my talk. He had one point and repeated it to me several times:

Search is good enough.

In my first lecture at the National Cyber Crime Conference on Monday, July 13, 2020, I make the point that locating information or getting software updates that work is an indication that “good enough” has become the target.

I read “A Moment of Clarity Regarding the Raison d’Etre for the App Store.” The article, which is critical of the giant weird technology company, includes this statement:

I worry that this sort of “Who cares, it’s better than nothing” attitude has seeped into Apple itself, and explains how we wound up with barely modified iPad apps shipping as system apps on the Mac. But more than anything I worry that this exemplifies where Apple has lost its way with the App Store.

What we have is a big American company allowing another big American company to deliver “good enough” products and services.

Couple this attitude with the challenges in education and pandemics. What do you get?

Hey, a good enough mind set. The problem is that good enough isn’t.

Stephen E Arnold, July 14, 2020

Comments

One Response to “The Covidization of Good Enough”

  1. Paul Carline on July 15th, 2020 7:39 am

    ‘Good enough’ for what? Good enough to continue making billions? Good enough to allow governments to seize despotic powers after people have been paralysed with fear from (deliberately?) inaccurate predictions (more commonly referred to as lies)?

    Just the latest in a long line of course … a non-existent threat of international jihadist terrorism (backed by specious official reports and ‘expert’ papers, and inflammatory books); ‘deadly’ epidemics and pandemics with prophesied mass fatality which never occurred; demonisation of selected international “enemies” – backed up by fake news … but “good enough”, when pushed hourly, daily, nightly on the mass media, to convince the somnolent majority of the public to believe in a real threat.

    ‘Good enough’ for those peddling the flawed scientific and other stories to continue to receive their generous government and other grants (don’t rock the boat, we don’t want to kill the cash cow …).

    ‘Science’ used to refer to the open-ended pursuit of the truth, wherever it led. But today that kind of science doesn’t pay the bills ..

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