On Perfectionism

Why are some people worried about the quality and consistency of results more than others? Why they feel bad if something goes wrong, even if it is not their fault? And, finally, why these people have health and mental issues because of the pursuit of excellence?

Source Of Perfectionism

Like any character trait, perfectionism always has a source, and it is always worth checking where it came from.

There are two common primary sources — ambitious goals, high-quality standards, or sometimes even both. Parents often set them in childhood by asking a child to be the best or achieve something great. Sometimes perfectionism may be intentionally or unintentionally acquired by an adult because of complicated circumstances, lots of stress, or some other factors.

Perfectionism usually has several common traits or symptoms. First of all, these are the goals and standards mentioned above. Second, the ability to see and measure the result, so a person can understand what he has achieved and be proud or satisfied. Third, perfectionism often involves competition as a trigger. So, a person can be a perfectionist only during a competition or conflict with another person.

Good Or Bad?

Some people consider perfectionism as an issue, others not. Let us check the pros and cons of this trait.

Pros are obvious. A perfectionist will maintain a good quality of work, do his work as a true professional, and cover as many use cases as possible. Such a person often explains how his product or solution works, why it works like that, and sometimes even can teach other people.

Cons are less obvious, though. A perfectionist often does lots of unnecessary activities and things that nobody needs. Consequently, it takes a lot of additional time and other resources, so you may face delays quite often. Another negative aspect of being a perfectionist is stress because of imperfections. Such a person may be unhappy because of the quality of colleagues’ work, imprecise requirements, human mistakes, and so on. All this street usually leads to mental and health issues in the future.

The logical question any person usually asks here — can you combine advantages and omit disadvantages of being a perfectionist? The answer is clear — yes, you can!

Deal With It

Most perfectionists should understand that the world is not black and white. They have to understand that results are not binary, and nobody needs a perfect solution, 90-95% quality is enough in most cases. So, what are practical recommendations then?

The most straightforward recommendation is to follow the Pareto principle for quality. It means that a person has to care about the 20% of the functionality and fix only 80% of common issues found there. After that, the customer can re-evaluate the solution and check if the quality is enough. It is it not, need to perform another 20% / 80% iteration, and do it up to when the customer will be happy with the quality.

The following approach involves changing the point of view. A person has to concentrate not on building a perfect product or solution but on solving the problem. Quality may be less important than functionality, and so the customer will be happier with average quality but advanced functionality.

One more hint — try to avoid minor bug hunting. Every mature product has many such issues, and fixing all of them will take a humongous amount of time. It is better to check if they are that important and maybe spend time on something else instead.

Here are my thoughts on the source of perfectionism, its advantages, disadvantages, and how to deal with it without significant issues. Follow these recommendations, and you can get the rest results without losing anything substantial!