Perfectionist?

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The language in the Delft blue tile is dutch, but i think the most shall see the message.

Yes, very much so, I HATE making mistakes and dwell on it for ages.

If I focus on one job, I enjoy doing it as well as I can. Meanwhile, the dishes pile up, etc etc. However, if I have chosen an interesting job to work on, it may well win a prize. If it does, the dish piles deepen, until I re-focus on the mundane.

I do suffer from perfectionism by being over-specialized. I had assumed that I would find a suitable partnership, but my field is still only at a scale for generalists.

My first full-time job was stamping electrical terminals onto wires. I had to stick a wire in a machine and press a foot pedal. The terminals were designed to grip the conductor tightly, and the insulation loosely, but only if the end of the insulation were placed within 1mm. Mine were, which made me about 2/3 the speed of most workers. Under pressure to speed up, I got my timing down so fine that the crimping wasn't tight enough until inspection noticed, but I wouldn't budge on the accuracy issue.

Another time, I was making a big model sailing ship for a parade float. I took the time to make a separate mast section for each course of sails instead of just putting them all on one straight dowel. The boss protested, but I was adamant that the builder should enjoy doing things right.

They say that nobody ever regretted buying quality, and I think the same goes for building it. Except that it is sometimes good to realize that a lot of stuff is really only practice, and effort should maybe be re-directed. One woman wrote her PhD on research about an almost forgotten writer, and she was meticulous, but still failed the relevancy test. The reasons for obscurity were still valid.

I think I might be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things. Like when I was employed I would do a good job but not stress out and try to go above and beyond, though to be fair that would have been impractical considering how over-worked we tended to be. But I've been beating myself up for years, pushing away from my natural talent with art because it's not as good as the pros. Only recently I've been trying a little harder to get ober that mindset and just draw, if only because I actually enjoy it. Another area I tend to agonoze over, and this may seem kind of dumb, is rpgs. I spend hours and hours agonizing over the right build, and if I percieve a mistake I start over for the fifty billionth time. Video games are supposed to be fun. I do also get the thing everyone is talkong about with conversations as well, but I never thought to consider that as pefectionism.

Detail-oriented perfectionist. If you learn just a bit of self-discipline/self-control, it can be a great advantage too.

I used to be really perfectionist when I was younger. To the point of controlling my weight and spending hours on my appearance. Also effected my work and home life in different ways from mad organisation sessions and going so far into details with my job that I’d take much longer than necessary to creat a design (I’m a graphic designer). Things like using even numbers in my font sizes and measurements needing to be exact. And if I wasn’t happy with a design, I’d agonise over it and waste time. Having counselling and realising it t wasn’t helping my life and anxiety levels I’ve eased off with the perfectionism. The impulses are still there though.

When I was about 7, my dad borrowed a big clear face-shield so I could dress as a space man for Halloween. The costume (everything was hand made then) didn't include a vacuum seal to the faceplate, and I absolutely refused to wear it.
My clothes are quite imperfect looking because I try to wear them out, and my bicycle looks like junk to save time and deter theives, but it is high-precision and light underneath.
One reason I like metalwork is the dramatic change in appearance at the final polish, but when I buy brassware, I may spend days eliminating little scratches to make it look more like goldsmithing. I learned a lot about how to work metal by looking at tool marks left behind, but I try to cover all of mine, except the hammer facets which I consider a feature.

Yes, I’m a perfectionist: a lousy perfectionist.

All the great musicians, as well as the not-so-great musicians, have perfectionism drilled into their heads from the first day the decide to take up studying music. Not only perfectionist, but tending toward OCD (why do you think we spend hours on end going over the same small passage? As the old adage goes, “Practice makes perfect!”)

Part of the problem has been the recording industry. Do you know why John Philip Sousa rarely, if ever, sat in front of the recording horn with his groups? That would have set the expectation by the public that this is how a work is to sound EVERY TIME! It didn’t matter if you were having an “off-day.” If you couldn’t meet that standard every time, you were considered to be slacking off, and not worth the money you paid to see and hear the act. Believe me, the public can be very hypocritical and judgemental. (I learned that lesson the hard way: I was one of the featured soloist my senior year in high school for that high school’s night of music. I came out in front of the band to start my solo. Partway through the number, I see mom and dad in the audience. Dad, being ever the jackass, had this smirk on his face that said, “I’m gonna make you f!ck up so badly that you’ll never recover. Once you f!ck up, I’ll embarrass you so badly, you’ll never show your face in public again. At the concert break, I caught hell from the band director to the point I was ready to pack it in right then and there. This, coming after performing with the National High School Honors Band, which was under the direction of Willian D. Revelli, the much revered and feared director of bands emeritus of the University of Michigan. The slightest mistake during a rehearsal would have him going into a 5 hour tirade.)

(As an aside, the Sousa Band still exists. They go by the name Of the Ringgold Band, of Ringgold, PA. Sousa died in Ringgold, PA, while he and his band were on tour. A friend of mine from college, who married my accompanist from college, became their director after retiring from teaching music in the public schools for 35 years.)

What the public doesn’t realize is the only see and hear the end result. They either can’t, or won’t, recognize mow much time and effort one spends locked in a practice room or a rehearsal hall perfecting one’s craft.