History Main / PerfectSolutionFallacy

* This is the main reason why Mercy in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' was completely re-worked. Under her old ability kit, the developers noticed that players would play Mercy too passively and were more than willing to pocket her active ultimate (which resurrected any dead teammates in her vicinity). Instead of "wasting" it on one or two revivals, players would try to wait for a moment for a near-or-full-team revive, and usually wind up not using it and being unhelpful if a perfect scenario did not present itself. Thus, the developers reworked her character where she has a revival ability on a 30-second cooldown and an ultimate that enhanced her abilities, allowing players to be more aggressive in keeping players alive instead of being trapped in the fallacy.[[/folder]]
* A side mission in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' has Spider-Man try a cloaking device that allows him to become invisible, with the disadvantage that when the cloaking field is active it interferes with his web shooters, so he can't use them while he's invisible. After the mission ends, Spider-Man concludes that the device isn't worth it because he can't shoot web while using it, so he discards it, entirely ignoring all the advantages invisibility allows when he's not fighting (such as easy sneaking, which would prevent a lot of the problems he'll face later in the game) and the fact that he can turn it on and off at any moment, which means even keeping it for an emergency would have been a good idea.

* ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'': In season 3, Cameron argues that they should hold off on taking Mutiny public for a year or two until they make what she considers to be vital improvements to the business. Donna argues that interest has peaked ''now'' and that they shouldn't risk a good thing for a ''chance'' at something better in the future. She explicitly accuses Cameron of making perfect the enemy of good.[[spoiler:However, it seems that Cameron was right in the end. Mutiny's IPO flops, and the company goes under within four years]].

* ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'': In season 3, Cameron argues that they should hold off on taking Mutiny public for a year or two until they make what she considers to be vital improvements to the business. Donna argues that interest has peaked ''now'' and that they shouldn't risk a good thing for a ''chance'' at something better in the future. She explicitly accuses accuses Cameron of making perfect the enemy of good.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E04AbsoluteCandor Absolute Candor]]", Jean-Luc Picard is called out on this by Zani, having chosen to retire from Starfleet in protest and do nothing afterwards rather than listen to Raffi's suggestion that they find another way, however imperfect, to continue the relocation of Romulans without Starfleet's support.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' the FatalFlaw behind the Plutonian's FaceHeelTurn was the criticism he received from the population after all his acts of heroism. It is implied that he has a pathological desire to have everyone love him, and simply couldn't tolerate any criticism whatsoever, no matter how justified.

** In "Absolute Candor", Jean-Luc Picard is called out on this by Zani, having chosen to retire from Starfleet in protest and do nothing afterwards rather than listen to Raffi's suggestion that they find another way, however imperfect, to continue the relocation of Romulans without Starfleet's support. Picard himself admits to it.

** Soundly {{defied}} in "The Impossible Box" when Picard sees the work being done at the Borg Reclamation Project. Having admitted that he "allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good," he commends Hugh for doing an imperfect job the best way he can.

* The internalization of this fallacy is common in people suffering from anxiety and depression: "whatever I do won't be perfect, therefore it's not worth doing at all". Therapy for both conditions often involves getting over the need to be perfect.

--->'''Picard:''' What you're doing is good, Hugh. There's no need for it to be perfect.

--->'''Picard:''' What you're doing here is good, Hugh. It doesn't have to be perfect.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In "Absolute Candor", Jean-Luc Picard is called out on this by Zani, having chosen to retire from Starfleet in protest and do nothing afterwards rather than listen to Raffi's suggestion that they find another way, however imperfect, to continue the relocation of Romulans without Starfleet's support. Picard himself admits to it.
-->'''Zani:''' Because you could not save everyone, you chose to save no one.\\

* An episode of ''Series/TheDailyShow'' lampooned a group of Fox News personalities who claimed that a proposed tax increase on the super-rich was worthless in eliminating the federal debt because it would generate "only" an additional $700 billion over 10 years, a small fraction of the overall debt. (Stewart and Co. then went on to show that raising taxes on the lowest-earning 50% of the population could only generate the same amount by claiming HALF of all of their material wealth in taxes.)

[[folder:Fanfics]]

* As far as ''Fanfic/KnowledgeIsPower'' is concerned, the fact that Dumbledore's plan to defeat Voldemort had some flaws makes him as evil as Voldemort himself.

* Rejecting something in order to negotiate a more favorable solution when it seems that is seen as viable and there is reason to believe the compromise solution can be taken if negotiations fail. However this can dovetail quite nastily into the SunkCostFallacy. I.E. "We've rejected compromise this long so we better hold out longer to make our efforts worth it."

Since outside of mathematics a perfect solution to ''anything'' is unlikely in the extreme, this fallacy is usually combined with BeggingTheQuestion; a debater will assume a "perfect" solution is one which fits his argument and ideals, regardless of whether his opponent would view the result as perfect or even desirable.

-->--'''Voltaire'''