"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem"
- John Galsworthy -
Lately, I have been going through research articles in the best conferences and journals in my field. With acceptance rate some time falling below 15%, these articles are the bests of the bests. However, many of them still leave me utterly disappointed with incremental results, mushy research questions, questionable methods, and unconvincing generalisation. They are not perfect. In fact, they are far from the ideal vision in my mind. I was so certain that I can do even better. After all, these works are already solid. They just need to do a bit more, and they would be perfect.
If that is the case, why wouldn't they go all the way?
Thinking back, when my criticism for the sake of lifting my ego quiets down, I suddenly understand. This is simply a manifestation of the Pareto's Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule: 20% of effort determines 80% of results; and correspondingly, the remaining 20% of results rely on 80% of effort. Perfection does not stop at 80%. It demands 100%. And that small 20% of results, that I naively think that I can easily reach actually demands a vast amount of effort.
That's why we rarely see perfection, or even near-perfection in real life. And that's is okay, because sometimes, 80% is enough.
And that, my friend, is my lesson on idealism and humility.
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