The 80-20 mentality in fullest flower appeared during the Internet boom in products like the various "Internet appliances" that did everything but what you wanted them to. Today's best example is desktop software for the Linux platform, where programs do a reasonable fraction of what you expect them to, then abruptly stop short. It's as though the developers figured that since 80% was good enough, they'd work only Mondays and take the rest of the week off.
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Tech products ought to work as reliably as refrigerators--the old ones--instead of saddling us with their "good enough" shortcomings. Consumers are right to mistrust the tech world's frequent knee-jerk response that highly reliable products are simply too much to ask for.

Stephen Manes, "Good Enough Isn't," Forbes.com, 28 Oct 2002

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