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The intolerable rise of perfectionism

theguardian.com

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Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#2
A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent.

By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards.

Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#4
post #2

A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards. Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

> A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent.

My dictionary defines 'exigence' (which I had not encountered before) as "an urgent need or demand", and I find that hard to parse. Is either of the parses "… who is more demanding than talented" or (like "grasp exceeds reach") "… whose demands exceed his or her talent" correct? If not, would you mind clarifying?

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#5
I tend to become much better at things a lot quicker if I just ingest a lot of the stuff (books, code, etc) and then spit out a mountain of it, instead of obsessing over making each and every thing I produce perfect.

Perfect isn't even an unchanging state. The better you are, the higher your standards become.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#6
post #4
post #2

A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards. Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

> A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. My dictionary defines 'exigence' (which I had not encountered before) as "an urgent need or demand", and I find that hard to parse. Is either of the parses "… who is more demanding than talented" or (like "grasp exceeds reach") "… whose demands exceed his or her talent" correct? If not, would you mind clarifying?

I think you got it. A perfectionist's demands to self (as in standards they think should be reached) exceed what their talent can actually deliver.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#7
post #5

I tend to become much better at things a lot quicker if I just ingest a lot of the stuff (books, code, etc) and then spit out a mountain of it, instead of obsessing over making each and every thing I produce perfect. Perfect isn't even an unchanging state. The better you are, the higher your standards become.

I guess our brain is tuned for experience. Even for trivial things, like tiny electromechanic setups, I can think hard and feel stuck, and often by just doing any thing, suddenly my mind sees a lot of new ideas. Probably a space search reduction.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#8
post #2

A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards. Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

I don't think I've met too many untalented perfectionist, I'm sure they exist though (feels like an unfortunate combo). I just feel talent is orthogonal to perfectionism.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#9
post #2

A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards. Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

I don't think that's true in general, because you can be a perfectionist about things that don't require any special talent to get right (just lots of time and effort). To take a trivial example, someone might be a perfectionist about ensuring that their shirts are perfectly ironed, but that has nothing (necessarily) to do with a lack of talent for ironing.

Re: The intolerable rise of perfectionism

#10
post #2

A perfectionist is someone with more exigence than talent. By deeming yourself a perfectionist, you openly state that you do not meet you own standards. Resolution lies on either end, depending on how possible/practical it is to improve a given skill.

It’s amazing to me how you pass off your opinions as fact. X Is Y. No hint of “I believe” or “my opinion is...”

Let me tell you first hand. You have no clue what you are talking about and should spend an hour or so reading up on the topic.

The most talented writers the world has ever seen have been crippled by perfectionism. Often going months without a Single word written.

As you state the resolution is scientifically proven. Become more talented. I would love to see you say this to Harper lee or Truman capotes face.

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