Too Perfect

“He is too perfect to work with “, said Smita pointing to Rachit in the “let me know your concerns” section of the weekly status meeting.

While others laughed off her comment, I wondered how an arduous trait like perfection cause discomfort to someone.

Rachit was Smita’s code reviewer and as she said she “had a hard time in convincing him that the same objective can be achieved in multiple other ways too”.

The meeting ended with Smita being instructed to follow the coding standards and Rachit to evaluate and review as per the specifications only.

When you hear an ambiguous statement you often tend to justify it with your viewpoint even when no one asks you for it. Even I started my analysis of her statement. I thought of all the people in my life whom I either call perfect or those who constantly seek perfection from others.

A quick scan of such people, situations I have been with them and the times I worked with them did not take much time for me to conclude that perfect people are indeed hard to put up with.

While they challenge you and make you realize your own undiscovered potential, they are difficult to survive with unless you have a constant zeal to improve.

Perfection might attract people but it is certainly not the factor why you like or love someone.

It’s the little imperfections which makes us love someone. These imperfections create the need of a companion and thus living together become delightful. You witness his growth, his mistakes, his corrective actions and it even gives you a scope to improve with his experience or even to commit you own mistakes.

It is however not a crime to be perfect but it of course is to expect the same from others when the subject in question is happy with the less optimal way of doing things. Seeking for or putting up with perfection might be horrendous at times but ultimately you end up being a better and improved version of your own-self.