the.com/devil in the details
The plan was perfect until someone actually had to execute it.
means The small, easy-to-overlook specifics are where a seemingly good plan actually succeeds or fails.
from A twist on the older phrase 'God is in the details,' attributed (without firm proof) to architects like Mies van der Rohe, meaning that care over small details elevates great work. Sometime in the 20th century the phrase flipped to 'the devil is in the details,' swapping reverence for warning — the idea that it's the fine print, not the grand concept, that trips you up.
- origin myth
- Often misattributed to Mies van der Rohe or Flaubert
- older version
- Originally God was in the details, not the devil
- real meaning
- Grand ideas die in small, boring implementation choices
- favorite habitat
- Contracts, footnotes, and that one unchecked edge case