One of the humbling things that has taken me years to learn: reliability often beats quality.

Let's say someone makes something high quality. And let's say someone will give them $100 for it.

Now let's say that person can make that high quality thing once a week. I always assumed that'd be worth $150. It's actually more like $500. The premium for reliability is often many multiples.

This also means that for a piece of work that may normally be valued at $50, that worse work made reliably is worth $250 - more than the high quality piece of work.

• Let's say you are a graphic designer and you are hired to design a logo for a client. You may not be the most creative or talented designer, but if you can consistently deliver the logo on time and within the agreed upon specifications, your clients will likely be happy with your work. They may even be willing to pay you a higher price for your services because they know they can depend on you to get the job done. In this case, the reliability of your work is more valuable to the client than the individual level of quality of the logo.

• A government might contract something that is lower quality but more reliable is when they are looking to hire a waste management company to collect and dispose of garbage in a particular area. In this case, the government may not be looking for the most advanced or high-tech waste management company, but they will likely prioritize companies that can consistently pick up the garbage on time and dispose of it in a safe and responsible manner. This is because the reliability of the service is more important to the government than the individual level of quality of the waste management technology.