{"id":52194,"date":"2023-09-02T21:02:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T19:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/?p=52194"},"modified":"2023-09-02T21:04:29","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T19:04:29","slug":"chabuduo-and-10ism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/chabuduo-and-10ism\/","title":{"rendered":"Chabuduo and 10%ism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I enjoyed Austin Healy’s post on Stopping at 90%<\/a>. It reminded me of what we used to call \u201c10% ism\u201d when I lived in Belgrade in the early 2000’s. Pretty much anything over there was always unfinished at that time. An entire road would be built, but they would not bother to truly<\/em> finish it. They would, for example, not do the filling between the new sidewalk and the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had the effect of making even good work look shabby and unfinished (because it was). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out this is a thing in China too. They have a word for it: Chabuduo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe prevailing attitude is chabuduo, or \u2018close enough\u2019. It\u2019s a phrase you\u2019ll hear with grating regularity, one that speaks to a job 70 per cent done, a plan sketched out but never completed, a gauge unchecked or a socket put in the wrong size. Chabuduo is the corrosive opposite of the impulse towards craftmanship, the desire, as the sociologist Richard Sennett writes in The Craftsman (2008), \u2018to reject muddling through, to reject the job just good enough\u2019. Chabuduo implies that to put any more time or effort into a piece of work would be the act of a fool. China is the land of the cut corner, of \u2018good enough for government work\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\nFrom \u201cWhat Chinese corner-cutting reveals about modernity<\/a>\u201d \u2013 James Palmer | Aeon Essays (also posted to Reddit https:\/\/reddit.com\/r\/whatstheword\/comments\/afgguq\/_\/edzpwkt\/?context=1<\/a> )<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Also, not a word, but an excerpt from a book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Now listen to the rule of the last inch. The realm of the last inch. The job is almost finished, the goal almost attained, everything possible seems to have been achieved, every difficulty overcome \u2014 and yet the quality is just not there. The work needs more finish, perhaps further research. In that moment of weariness and self-satisfaction, the temptation is greatest to give up, not to strive for the peak of quality. That\u2019s the realm of the last inch \u2014 here, the work is very, very complex, but it\u2019s also particularly valuable because it\u2019s done with the most perfect means. The rule of the last inch is simply this \u2014 not to leave it undone. And not to put it off \u2014 because otherwise your mind loses touch with that realm. And not to mind how much time you spend on it, because the aim is not to finish the job quickly, but to reach perfection. “<\/p>\n“In the First Circle” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, on “The Rule of the Last Inch”<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I enjoyed Austin Healy’s post on Stopping at 90%. It reminded me of what we used to call \u201c10% ism\u201d when I lived in Belgrade in the early 2000’s. Pretty much anything over there was always unfinished at that time. An entire road would be built, but they would not bother to truly finish it. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-dzQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16868,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/construal-level-theory\/","url_meta":{"origin":52194,"position":0},"title":"Construal Level Theory","author":"Limbic","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a lot of soul searching and anger around the time of the Paris massacre in November 2015 because the Paris massacre got so much attention whereas the Beirut bombing the previous day did not. Maybe Construal Level Theory explains it: Construal level theory (CLT) is a theory in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/humanities\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27041,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/warnings-return-of-the-long-emergency\/","url_meta":{"origin":52194,"position":1},"title":"Warnings: Return of The Long Emergency","author":"Limbic","date":"June 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"James Kunstler's 2005 book \"The Long\u00a0Emergency\" made a huge impression on me when I read it in 2006. In fact, it was one of the reasons I found myself pursuing a career in cloud computing in 2007. Partly thanks to this book and a former boss from British Telekom, my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/anthropology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/warnings.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-inner-ring-by-cs-lewis\/","url_meta":{"origin":52194,"position":2},"title":"The Inner Ring by CS Lewis","author":"Limbic","date":"December 3, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Inner Ring\" was the Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of London, in 1944. It is a superb piece of work and an apt demonstration of why C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite writers even though he is mostly concerened with religious matters but I am a non\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}