Motto Origin: Good, Fast, Cheap — Pick Any Two

James M. Wallace? Erwin Frand? Gary Davis? Burt Reynolds? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Buyers always want products to be constructed with the highest quality, manufactured at the fastest speed, and priced at the lowest cost. Frustrated sellers assert that only two of those objectives can be achieved at the same time. The buyer must select only two out of three. This notion has been expressed compactly in the following ways:

(1) Quality. Speed. Price. Choose any two.
(2) Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick any two.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: This saying is difficult to trace because it can be expressed in many ways. The earliest match known to QI appeared in the 1980 book “The Official Explanations” compiled by Paul Dickson. Credit was given to James M. Wallace of Minneapolis who stated that the adage applied particularly to advertising and print shops. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1980, The Official Explanations, Compiled by Paul Dickson, Quote Page 230, Delacorte Press, New York. (Verified on paper)

Wallace’s Two-out-of-Three Theory.
SPEED
QUALITY
PRICE
Pick any Two.

Additional details and citations are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.

Image Notes: Picture of the autonomous subway in Suwon South Korea from Mathew Schwartz at Unsplash.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Andrew Munro whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Thanks also to researcher Barry Popik who explored this topic and found citations beginning in 1982.