Perfection Does Not Exist
Even if it did, you wouldn't know it if you saw it.
Mathematically perfection cannot exist (trust me, I’ve done the math). Not only that, subjectively it cannot exist either. Thus, given the mathematical and perceptual impossibilities, the pursuit of perfection is a waste of time and effort. We’ll start with the math (it helps to explain the subjective part).
MATH TIME
Perfection is considered the state of being where there are no flaws. Where 100% of everything you want is exactly correct. Sounds easy enough, but perfection also means a state of being where 100% of what you DON’T want is not present. Ah, shit, it’s about to get weird.
When you are striving for what you value you have to account for ALL the stuff, both what you want and what you don’t want (we’ll call this 100% of the stuff). As we move to perfection, we have to weed out the stuff we don’t want from the stuff we do want. Starting with 100% of the stuff, we would whittle it down thusly:
20% perfect: 20% of what you don’t want is removed leaving 80% of the stuff from which to find perfection.
40% perfect: 40% of what you don’t want is removed leaving 60% of the stuff from which to find perfection.
60% perfect: 60% of what you don’t want is removed leaving 40% of the stuff from which to find perfection.
80% perfect: 80% of what you don’t want is removed leaving 20% of the stuff from which to find perfection.
You can see the challenge here. You can continue this process ad infinitum as there is always something you need to strip away to get to perfection1. In the end to achieve perfection you will end up with:
99.99999% perfect: 99.99999% of what you don’t want is removed leaving 0.00001% of the stuff from which to find perfection.
Mathematically that is the same as saying:
100% of what you don’t want leaves 0% of everything else.
Perfection is so miniscule as to be nonexistent.
That leads us to the subjective part: regardless of what we are trying to achieve, our perception of perfection perpetually… evolves2. Perfection isn’t a fixed spot on a bullseye, it is an ever moving, ever morphing nebulous blob of a concept.
Perfection is so small mathematically and so abstract subjectively, for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t exist. Therefore striving for perfection is futile and a complete waste of effort. Might as well go snipe hunting.
SO WHAT DO WE STRIVE FOR?
We all know the 80/20 rule (right?) It goes like this: in many systems 20% of the input results in 80% of the output. It manifests itself in all sorts of weird ways:
20% of a sales force will be responsible for 80% of sales.
20% of the people you meet you will hit it off with. The other 80% - not so much.
20% of the pizza you have ever eaten accounts for 80% of the reason you like pizza (think about it).
It works with perfection too: if you can get within 20% of perfection, you’re getting 80% of the benefit of it. More than that, because perfection is constantly moving and changing within that 20%, you might already be standing directly on top of it and don’t even know it.
You may be thinking that I am telling you not to strive to be the best you can be. That you should quit before reaching the top. No, I am not suggesting that at all. There is always room for improvement. There are always ways to make things just a little bit better. What I am asking is for you to allow yourself some grace. Broaden your definition of whatever it is “perfect” is.
And move on to your next challenge.
Michelangelo once said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” You could take this to mean: Remove the imperfection to reveal the perfection. I would argue that in David, Michelangelo revealed only the imperfections he wanted you to see.
I seriously could not find a word starting with “P” to end that sentence.