McBryan's Law

Before something works, its weaknesses are predictions. Once it works—even crudely—its failures become observable: a component breaks, an assumption collides with a constraint, or a result falls short. That working baseline turns improvement from speculation into diagnosis. This is the operational core of Perfect Is the Enemy of Good: the rough version creates the feedback that polish requires. It also explains why executing a usable plan reveals information that more planning cannot. When performance can be observed repeatedly, measurement can identify which defect deserves the next iteration.

McBryan’s Law does not license careless deployment. Where a first failure could cause irreversible harm, “make it work” may need to happen in a simulation, prototype, test environment, or tightly bounded trial. Nor should the baseline become an excuse to stop: rising standards can be useful when they direct attention to consequential defects rather than endless cosmetic refinement.