[lit-ideas] Satisficionados

While enjoying John's discussion of the "satisficing heuristic," I believe that 
the context of his argument for deadline-influenced decision-making has led him 
to misinterpret one of his fond memories, which had in turn triggered one of 
mine, complete with, I hope, a corrective to his misinterpretation. He wrote:

I can still recall my father and uncles referring to rough and ready solutions 
to mechanical or other technical problems as "good enough for government work," 
by which they meant something that would  patch the problem until a better 
solution could be found.

This misses, I'm afraid, what Wittgenstein refers to as the Witz, or "point," 
more specifically, the "joke" of the expression "government work." The 
expression was decidedly not meant as a stopgap measure until a better solution 
came along. In particular, the worry about deadlines and such is not a 
government problem. Instead, the expression, which can also be heard as "close 
enough for government work," is an indication of the work done by an 
organization and its employees who have secure jobs based primarily on 
seniority and whose work is not subject to market forces. The government hires 
contractors who compete with each other to get the jobs. Their work will be 
measured with argus eyes, but if the government does the job itself, they can 
jokingly say, "good (or close) enough for government work" and move onto the 
next task.

Richard Henninge
University of Mainz

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