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Are you a perfectionist? About people you know?

  • Yes! I am

    Votes: 15 50.0%
  • Sometimes

    Votes: 10 33.3%
  • No

    Votes: 5 16.7%

Are you a perfectionist? Do you know somebody who is? Explain.

4K views 33 replies 20 participants last post by  deggial 
#1 ·
I am not, my wife is.
 
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#11 ·
Well, that's not entirely true, in my opinion. I, for one, am an amateur and am pretty much seeking to perfect my performances or practices at home; never satisfied. Sure, there's a point where amateurs make their "rite of passage" to the professional side, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the amateur stopped being a perfectionist (if he/she has been one at all to begin with). :)

And likewise, I'm pretty much my own worst critic as well - not always negatively, but still. Same goes for my mother.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I'm so used to making mistakes... And, the worst part is that I forgive myself easily... LOL. When I make translations, I translate rather quickly, but plenty ofe mistakes, I read myself again and I correct the best I can.. Then I give it to my professional "filter" (i.e. my wife) who has that perfect spirit and the job is always great! I feel great the way I am, I am not patient enough to become a perfectionist. I'm pretty sure Mozart wasn't (was he?). He lived just 35 years...do you think, looking to his huge production, he took the time to correct? I guess, you can't produce so much when you are a perfectionist. He was a real GENIOUS though.
Look at Balzac. Nevertheless, he produced a lot...But he lived enough to do so. ("I pass most of my time rewriting texts"). Good for you Honoré. I don't have the patience to do that. My Portuguese sucks, my Italian as well, probably my written English is not great (my pronounciation is quite good), my Russian is so, so....Do you think I mind? I speak in these languages with my mistakes fast enough... And when you don't speak perfectly the language, you can't even notice my multiple mistakes. When I write here, I'm sure I make many different kinds of mistakes...Mene frega! LOL. Je m'en fous! I don't give a fig! Me importa poco!

Ciao

Martin
 
#7 ·
If I were a normal guy, I should be impressed and jealous by perfectionists. Well, I am absolutely not! The best fault I consider I have: I am not patient. Many consider patience as a vertue. Not me! I could occasionally be a little perfectionist when I am convinced that otherwise I won't get it.

Martin
 
#12 · (Edited)
I think there's a kind of sliding scale of perfectionists. From top (most perfectionist) to bottom, it goes something like this, maybe:

1. Anally retentive obsessed perfectionist / perfection freak
2. V.P.P. or Very Pedantic Person
3. Normal perfectionist - eg. perfectionist in things that matter (eg. in matters of life and death, YES, but NOT in things like hanging out the socks to dry on the line in matching colour coded pairs, etc.)
4. Non-perfectionist
5. Nowhere near perfectionist (IMperfectionist?)

Sometimes I am a perfectionist, sometimes I'm not...
Same here.
 
#16 ·
You're free to say what you want here. It's the community forum, a fun bit of this site, I thought? Try not take it too seriously (although it's easy to do that, I know).

I buy your idea of categories! I am between 3 and 4...Depending of the importance of the matter.... Pedantic? I can't see the relation between pedantic and perfectionist... I don't like pedantic people.

...
I don't know. It just came to my mind. It's like some people are willing to bend rules, others are for the strict 'black letter' of the law. I think a lot of life is in the grey areas. Even things you thought could not be creative can be. I like to explore the grey areas and try think laterally (not 'literally?').

But ultimately depends on the situation/context at hand.

I am often at the supermarket and I ask for say half a kilo of ham. Sometimes it's a bit over or under, the person at the counter might put in more or less. When they ask me 'is it okay if I put 520 grams?,' I usually don't fuss, I say that's okay. But a pedantic person would want EXACTLY 500 grams, no ifs no buts. I kind of see a connection between that and perfectionism. In that case, the person serving me has to be 100 per cent perfect. But you know what they say, it's not a perfect world.
 
#20 · (Edited)
A perfectionist will, even knowing what they have done / are doing is 'pretty excellent' not be satisfied with that, always thinking - no, knowing, it could be 'better,' or that much closer to 'perfect.'

Pedantry has nothing to do with it. The archetype 'petty academic' is one more concerned with dotting all the I's, crossing all the T's, and adhering to form to a degree where they miss the bigger picture: they are often the antithesis of 'creative' anything.

On the practical level, there is great distinction between being 'meticulous' and 'fastidious.' I don't think there are / were many successful fastidious creatives, but most / many were meticulous in plying their craft.

The perfectionist will not get bogged down in or about crossing the T's and dotting the I's, but before they are done, they will have covered every little detail and aspect of the work.

A perfectionist is someone who will never accept the phrase, "Good enough." In fact, to a true perfectionist, that phrase is repulsive. Many a perfectionist is a perfectionist only in matters important to them. Fastidious people are often, more compulsively, fastidious about all matters in which they are involved, i.e. unable to distinguish what is important from that which is not.

In the perfectionist debit column:
Many a perfectionist will not finish what they began, because they know it will never be truly perfect, "So, why bother?''
 
#25 ·
I am a perfectionist only when it comes to things I care about. I'm guaranteed to do my very best at something in which I have a personal interest*, conversely I am guaranteed not to do very well if I have no interest in what I am doing, as such I have never lasted long in positions of regular employment but have always been fortunate enough to hand in my week's notice before I could be sacked.

*The other day I was up late baking for a somewhat important event. I made a complicated cake (which takes around two hours to make in total) that went wrong, so I rushed out on foot in the pouring rain to the Tesco Express (think 7-Eleven) with only 10 minutes to spare and got all the ingredients again. Having made the cake correctly I then screwed up the topping twice, the third attempt was good but not correct and by then I no longer had the necessary ingredients, so I ended up making something completely different for the event.
 
#32 ·
I'm a perfectionist when it comes to music. I am never satisfied with my performance, no matter how grand everyone tells me it is. I know when I play well, even great, but I always know of something I could have done better...more emotion in a passage, stretched a note a bit more, more crescendo into a phrase...it's really quite annoying how I always pick myself apart. However, I'd rather be this way than be content with my playing. If I were content and felt that I'd "arrived" at 17, there would be no point in my going to study music...so I am glad that I am a perfectionist. And, making sure that every note in my 32nd note passage lines up perfectly, will pay off some day lol.
 
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