Comments on: The Frog And The Perfectionist

By: Michael Panebianco

Michael Panebianco — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:55:22 +0000

Hmmmm, Tastes like chicken! Now, if I could only figure out the blend of seasoning……

Hope you feel better my friend!

By: vitamine a

vitamine a — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:22:03 +0000

Hello
I hope that you will get well soon.Just take care of your self.You have well said that perfectionism is a modern ‘disease’.I don’t think so that perfectionist is necessary.Nobody is perfect in this world but at least you can try for it.

By: Tim Brownson

Tim Brownson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:52:52 +0000

@ Alisa – It was a very old frog that unfortunately couldn’t swim as he had very bad arthritis.

I think there is a lot of truth in what you say in terms of left brain, right brain stuff as for what other people expect, do you really care as long as you give it your best shot?

By: Alisa Bowman

Alisa Bowman — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:21:37 +0000

Weird. I thought the frog thing was a trick question because the frog can just swim to shore, so it requires no jumping. Just one dive, I suppose.

Is that an example of thinking outside of the box?

Anyway, I’ve struggled with perfectionism on and off in my life. I’ve gotten better over the years at letting it go. For instance, I leave comments on blog posts without reading and copy editing them first. Therefore I have typos all over the world wide web at this point.

Certain careers seem more ripe for it than others. In writing, there are different skill sets. Some writers are better at the big picture–coming up with the big idea, crafting the voice etc. But these people are not so good at the tedious stuff–grammar, spelling, proof reading. It requires two different sides of the brain really–one side comes up with ideas. The other side finds typos. Yet in my industry, it seems people increasingly expect me to be good at all of it. Or perhaps that’s me just trying to read their minds. Perhaps they are not thinking that at all.

By: Tim Brownson

Tim Brownson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:34:29 +0000

@ Mark – Damn you pointing out flaws in something that took me literally seconds to think through. Froggy didn’t make it ok? He’s now in my blender ready for dinner tonight.

Agree and disagree. Sure there is nothing wrong with correcting something, but is there any reason unless your job depends on it to feel bad about a typo in the first place?

@ CT- Don’t feel sorry for him, he was always going to die someday anyway.

I think that is fine as long as it doesn’t border on obsession. The issue to me is when people become paralyzed and can’t act. we all know somebody that is going through their 24th re-write of a book they started in 1961, right?

@ Patricia – Got your e-mail, thanks, and that’s all good with me.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:09:42 +0000

My IT is a perfectionist,engineer, math geek…she could certainly use this book…I will email you…I live in a household of perfectionists…an my mum was a perfectionist…I work at not being a perfectionist.

Hope you are feeling better and better.

By: Ct Kingston

Ct Kingston — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:02:21 +0000

I feel badly for amphibian thingy.
Obviously there is ‘no’ perfection, but striving for it isn’t always a neurosis as long as the person ‘knows’ it doesn’t exist. Basically I mean that extreme attention to detail may very well be for the individual’s own pleasure not to please others. I know this for certain in some folks, especially musicians. However they are smart enough to realize that all the tiny details rarely get noticed. That’s of no matter, because ‘they’ notice and within lies their happiness for a job well done.

Cool stuff for the 12For12K. Good on you Tim.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:22:19 +0000

Donation has been made, and because I’m in the UK, that’s an extra book for someone else (though I am enjoying the electronic version).

I’m a perfectionist, and also a very literal person. Not a great combination – in fact, sometimes I can be a pain in the ass. So that just leaves me to point out that…

Your frog would eventually hit dry land because of his sheer size. He’d eventually reach a point where he was just too darn big to jump half the distance left without partly being on dry land and partly on water (assuming the halfway point was measured from the centre of his body and not the front-most tip).

On a serious note about perfectionism, whilst I recognise it can be counter-productive, I also wonder if perhaps it is OK to pursue to a point. For example, if a little grammatical mistake in a blog post is going to upset you, then why not expend a little effort putting it right. I think it is when perfectionism threatens to cripple you into inaction that it becomes a problem. Sometimes the value it adds is in making you feel better – so long as that is the outcome, no worries!