the.com/loose ends
The 10% of any task that takes 90% of the effort and all of the dignity.
means The small, unfinished details left over after the main part of a job is done — minor, but they nag until closed.
from Pulls from rope and weaving: a cut or frayed rope has 'ends' that fray loose if not bound off, and an unfinished textile leaves threads dangling. By the 1700s English speakers were using 'loose ends' figuratively for unfinished business — the stray bits of a task not yet tied off.
- origin
- Sailors coined it, unsecured ropes meant real danger
- psychology
- Brain flags them via the Zeigarnik effect, unfinished nags harder
- paradox
- Tying one usually reveals two more hiding