Good Vs Great

We naturally tend to think more of something quantitatively good is great.

A great sprinter is faster than a good one.
A great scholar gets more marks.
A great podcaster has more listeners.

And in some domains, that’s true. But more often than we’d like to admit, that model quietly breaks down in other instances. Because sometimes, good and great are not different in degree. They are categorically different. They are not in the same spectrum but in two different universes.

When you set out to do great work compared to a good work,

• What you start with is different.

• The way you approach the problem is different.

• The problem you’re solving becomes different or at least framed different.

A great writer doesn’t just write more, they change the way the readers think.
A great product doesn’t just serve a need, it reframes what the need even is.
A great startup doesn’t capture an existing market, it creates one.

However, There’s a catch.
When you aim for great work and fall short, you don’t usually land at good.
You land at something worse: unempathetic, confusing, unusable, irrelevant, or even broken.

The old adage “Shoot for the stars, you might land on the moon” doesn’t apply here.
In this game, the moon is a crash site.

Not everyone needs to do great work.
Even if you do, not everything you do has to be great.

But when you choose to try, you have to keep few things in mind,

1. Falling short doesn’t lead to good work
   Miss the mark on great work and you don’t have a decent product, you have a mess.

2. You won’t have a roadmap
   Good work often has a playbook. Great work? You’re writing the playbook as you go. Usually, You are the one carving the path.

3. You’ll need unreasonable conviction
   Great work might not be obvious to others until after it works.

4. Feedback still matters but not all of it
   Good work optimizes for what people say they want. Great work sometimes gives them what they didn’t know they needed. The customer might need to catch up with the newly framed need.

5. It will feel risky. That’s how you’ll know you’re close
   If it feels obvious or acceptable too early, you’re probably still doing good work.

Traps to avoid

Things that look like great work but not are

• Thinking you’re doing great work just because it’s hard
  Difficulty doesn’t equal greatness. Sometimes it just means you’re stuck.

• Trying to make everything great
  Not every task deserves greatness. Be selective, Focus on main things or you’ll burn out.

• Overbuilding or overreaching without traction
  Great work isn’t about ego or scale. It’s about real, lasting impact.

• Expecting validation too soon
  Great work often looks weird at first. That’s part of the point.

When you do great work, you end up
Choosing different. Solving different. acting different.

Great isn’t what happens when you max out the good.
It’s what happens when you throw out the map and forget the status quo.