There’s quality, and there’s impact, utility.

The two are rarely synonymous.

 

Quality is more of an ideal, idea, concept,

Doesn’t mean it’s abstract, it could be real, tangible,

But it is not necessarily scalable,

Therefore utility is limited

Therefore it’s impact is limited

It’s immediate impact is limited.

 

It’s long term impact could be immense,

It doesn’t have to be

It could be too narrow, too specialised, too nieche, too esoteric,

But it could be immense,

It’s immediate impact could be minimal and it’s long-term impact could be immense,

 

This is because once pure utility is scaled — the only further avenue to still increase utility is by improving the quality,

Therefore quality is the only way to indefinitely keep improving,

Mere scaling invariably hits an absorbing barrier of having been scaled to it’s maximum.

 

It thus begs the question, question many great man ask: Why not start with quality?

Why not do something WELL in the first place?

Why compromise?

 

You don’t have to compromise

You don’t have to have an impact either,

You don’t have to see worldly success in this lifetime

You don’t have to have an impact today nor tomorrow

It really is your choice,

The only thing that matters is that you make that choice consciously,

That you understand why

 

Which is why you must understand that QUALITY and IMPACT are not synonymous,

It’s often conflated,

Men pursuit what they consider “high quality” and are confused about the world not rewarding their merits appropriately,

Likewise some pursuit the greatest impact today, and are confused when the world leaves them behind tomorrow,

You can be good today but not good enough tomorrow,

But you can also be TOO GOOD today!

This must be understood,

And it must be understood that at any moment you can maximise quality, idealism — or utility, immediate impact,

This is how you will strike the perfect balance,

And this is how you will perhaps find such rare endeavours which perhaps don’t require such a compromise, and THERE devote your precious resources,

Those few endeavours where exploration of the utmost quality also yields the greatest utility,

So that you don’t have to make that difficult choice

But first you must understand

You can be not good enough, and you can be too good