This has been one of my biggest pet peeves over the years (the use of 110%, 120%, 1000%, etc. as a way of expressing effort and/or commitment) and I feel the need to exorcise it now. We have all heard it said countless times and in countless ways. And I am here to tell you it makes no sense at all and is a bad habit that we should all work hard to break immediately.  

100% is a CEILING, you cannot exceed 100% of something like effort or commitment however hard you try. Any attempt to do so diminishes the mathematical definition of 100%. It means, “entirely and completely.” There is no delta above “entirely and completely.” Sorry to be the badly needed voice of reason. But what about the athlete who talks about giving 110% or the politician stating that she is 120% behind some cause? It is, more than anything, simply blatantly lazy language. Rather than go into the specifics of how said athlete plans to give it his all or the hypothetical politician getting into the details of why a particular cause is worthy of her full support, both can simply toss out the “100% plus something” cliché’ and clumsily attest to their respective earnestness in the particular undertaking. OK, I’m going to go beyond the classification of “lazy” and also toss in “stupid.”

A perfect analogy would be a cup of coffee. You don’t go to your local coffee place and order 120% of your order. You could decide to order a medium instead of a small, or perhaps you could even opt for a large. Each would be 100% of what they are, again 100% is a ceiling rather than a loose association with totality. Moreover, you don’t offer someone 120% of a pen and tell them this is a special kind of pen. You don’t buy a shirt with the request that the shirt be 110% of a shirt. You simply buy the shirt knowing that it is a shirt (the 100% is assumed). If you wanted to cut the sleeves off later I suppose you could have 75% of a shirt. However, and this is a big however, the shirt can never be added to and worn without looking a little silly. Few people would add a second neck hole just for kicks. And, sorry, the 100% limit rule would still apply. Putting in an extra neck hole doesn’t make it 120% of a shirt.   

I can sense what some of you might be thinking. Lighten up TC, it is just an expression which denotes ultimate effort or total commitment. People have been using the “100% plus something” expression for a long time now and it is no big deal. It is a part of the global cultural norm now so let it go. I wish that I could, but you see, it is such a glaring example of the very opposite principle that it purports to champion, total effort. It in fact demeans total effort, lazily (as mentioned), by feeling the need to add something to something which already signifies COMPLETE effort and or support (i.e., 100% effort or support). So, would I die on that logical/ semantic hill? Yes, I would.

While we are at it, there is another numerical phenomenon that deserves attention in this space, the number one trillion. This number gets tossed around these days (mostly by politicians) as though it is a large yet seriously intentioned number when it comes to a proposed governmental spending that they are 120% committed to (sorry couldn’t resist). I am here to tell you that the number one trillion is anything but graspable and understandable by our finite human brains. As a matter of fact, this number comes as close to a definition of infinite as any number that I somewhat commonly hear.

What do you mean, a trillion is obviously a number? Yes it is. And, as mentioned, a very big number indeed that has no business being bantered about so casually. The final calculations differ slightly, yet ONE TRILLIONS SECONDS = roughly 31,710 years (PLEASE READ THIS TWICE). So next time you hear a politician talk about the need for a 2.6 trillion-dollar spending bill (or whatever the insane amount might be—- Build Back Better comes to mind), be a little smarter and push back on the almost routine need to spend that kind of money when our country has a current national debt of over 31 trillion dollars. Taxes anyone? Saddling future generations with insurmountable debt? The government can print more money, we the people cannot (without ending up in prison).   

I would suggest that once we become lazy in our language and way of expressing thoughts we also become lazy in our way of understanding the complex (be it a number or a concept). Said another way, I am completely opposed to the initiation of profligate governmental spending programs based on the fact our current national debt cannot support it. If I were a fifth grader you might even say, I’m 110% against it. See, that was easy once you take the time to give it some thought rather than drown in the sea of soundbite logic and shortcut analysis.

As a last aside, being that we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I thought it would be interesting to include Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation that formally established a day of thanksgiving for all of the states in the midst of the Civil War, just in case you may feel that we (2022 people) are vastly superior in terms of intelligence to the people of the 1860’s. The above argument would suggest otherwise.

 Also consider the fact that this proclamation was written for all people to read or hear, and that God receives a prominent place in the convincing, yet humble rhetoric. Read the beautifully crafted words and compare them to the “eloquence” of what we get today. If you still feel that we aren’t a little lazy and simplistic with our language (and our ability to tackle complex concepts) , there probably isn’t anything I could say to convince you even if I had a trillion seconds to do so.

  Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

“Within each person, the person you are today and the person you are capable of becoming tomorrow.  Most people work at less than 50% and are satisfied by doing just enough to get by.  Those who aspire to greatness are those who use 100% of what God has given us.”

Ken Cook

TMC 11/26/22