Does the small stuff matter?

Do the little things matter? If it’s just something small, should I be concerned with it? But what if it only happens once—is that a big deal?

All of these questions can be answered with a single phrase, “it depends.” My partner and I have been playing a game lately called Dominion. It is a deck-building game. Each turn, you have the chance to increase the size of your deck by acquiring cards. I have the thought sometimes that the procurement of just one card over another shouldn’t matter so much. But, like I said earlier, it depends.

At the beginning, starting with 10 cards, adding an additional one increases your deck by 10%. Add to that the fact that early cards have more chances to be played, and you can see that it really does matter, a lot, which early card you choose.

Does the little thing matter? Well, is it the percent by volume of arsenic in your food? Then, it does matter, a lot.

If it’s something small, should you be concerned with it? Well, if it’s something that will repeat itself over and over again indefinitely, like spending 10 minutes a day on something which over the course of a year will add up to 60 hours, then yes — it might be worthwhile to be concerned with it.

But what about if it only happens once? Well, is it a nuclear explosion? What about a COVID-19 pandemic? Then, yes, it matters.

Let’s flip that around though.

Let’s say that you usually work out every day, but for some reason have to miss two weeks of working out. Is that a big deal? If you continue working out as normal afterwards, then no, it’s not a big deal. The two weeks will eventually be a tiny blip in the otherwise steady stream of workouts. But if that two week period causes you to stop working out altogether, then yes, that might be a big deal.

Does the small stuff matter? It depends.