Appropriate number of functional concepts?

Its true. You never reach the perfect solution because there is no such thing. At some point you have to make a judgment call to advance a few concepts and move to the next step.

Someone recently told me the story of a young jazz musician who had the opportunity to meet Miles Davis. A few drinks in he says “Miles, can I ask you a question? When I’m soloing, I can never seem to stop. One note leads to the next. There are always infinite possibilities of where to go, and my solos just end up rambling on forever. How do you stop a solo?”

Miles replied “I take the horn out of my mouth.”