NavList:

I used to read Jeff Cooper’s Gunsite Gossip, where he coined the phrase “preoccupation with inconsequential increments” to describe losing sight of the overall objective by focusing on details that make little practical difference. I often think of this lesson when practicing celestial navigation. While precision is important, in CN I’ve found that striving for “better” can sometimes be the enemy of “good enough.”

Bernard Moitessier sailed around the world taking a single noon sight each day and plotting his position on a small globe. He rarely bothered with star sights unless necessary and never concerned himself with sub-meter accuracy. If night fell while he was within his margin of error near shore, he simply hove-to until daylight.

-db

"A couple of years ago we coined the appellation, "Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments," or PII. This peculiarity lies in attributing importance to measurable deviations so small as to be meaningless. You see it in the people who shoot test groups in rifles, awarding a prize to a group which is only thousandths of an inch smaller than those unrewarded. One sees it in speed records awarded in one-thousandths of one mile-per-hour. One sees it in basketball scores which, nearing the century mark, are separated by less than three points. In all such cases Score A is "better" than Score B, but who cares?

An increment may be termed inconsequential when it has no significant relationship to the purpose of the exercise. Of course if the purpose of the exercise is in itself inconsequential some may not think this to be foolish. A very distinguished general at Quantico once caused the sign to be placed over the exit door of every office asking, in brilliant scarlet and gold, "What are you trying to do?" There was a man who knew more about human nature than most." - Jeff Cooper