Name: Anonymous 2009-11-26 9:38
Actually, the problem is that for most actual skills and tasks there is no such thing as mastery. IRL there is no 450 skill points limit, that you can reach and then relax. And most RL problems are multi-dimensional problems where there is no perfect solution, but least worst compromises. And definitely not where you can max one aspect and proclaim that the others don't matter, which is what OCPD cases... err... perfectionists usually do.
RL "perfectionists" tend IMHO to be one or more of the following:
A) the real, honest kind: people who never finish. I still remember someone who, on the day before the deadline, was still working on his perfect XML parsing project for that project. (A tiny part of the project's functionality, and one he shouldn't have been doing himself: there's Xerxes.) There's _always_ one more optimization that can be done, one more clever trick that can be tried, one more label that would look better one pixel lower, etc. It's harder than you think, being a real bona-fide perfectionist.
B) the fake kind, which are basically just arrogant. They do a crap job, and then proclaim it to be perfect, just because they're that good in their own opinion. Often these are actually an illustration of the Dunning-Kruger effect [wikipedia.org]: the least competent tend to grossly overrate their skills and competence, just because they're not competent to do that judgment. They don't even know what they don't know. And conversely the most competent tend to underrate themselves, because they do have some clue of all the things they don't know.
C) the kind who'll redefine the problem to get a "perfect" solution. As I was saying RL problems are usually multi-dimensional, and increasing one aspect often loses you another. E.g., making a car engine more powerful also turns it into a gas guzzler. E.g., too many options in a GUI can actually make it less usable, or at least harder to also make it usable. Etc. A lot of OCPD kinds take such a variable and genuinely don't seem able to comprehend that it can take other values than 0 and 100%. Either you hit 100% or you're doing a crap job. But they can't hit 100% in all either. So they basically just pick one aspect and proclaim it the only thing that matters, and proclaim everyone who cares about the other aspects to be a clueless idiot. Unfortunately the actual best compromise for an actual user is rarely that. These guys tend to complain a lot that the users are clueless idiots.
D) the bitter whiner. These people rarely make something they'd rate perfect, and some don't even produce anything at all for years, but they complain about everyone and everything else. These people aren't as much into achieving perfection, as into just having something to whine about. Their very criteria for what perfection actually means, are fluid and disposable, often to the extent that they're simply the opposite of what everyone else is doing. E.g., I actually worked with one who, after he had converted the whole team to Linux (not that it was hard in a team of complete nerds) and thus lost that reason to complain, promptly switched to BSD and proclaimed both Windows _and_ Linux to be mainstream crap for idiots. He caused an indentation war fighting for the holy cause of _three_ space tabs, he fought to change the directory where the build script left the built executable, etc.
And a few other archetypes.
And just so it's not completely off topic: you can see the same in MMOs too.
A) There are people who are genuinely trapped into the neverending treadmill of needing every single achievement, every single pet, completing every single quest (even if it's 70 levels below them), paying 1000 gold on the Savory Deviate Delight recipe just because they _must_ have all the recipes in game, etc. Not because they actually need them, but because anything else wouldn't be perfect. I had a friend who in the offline game Panzer General saved before every single attack he'd make, and reload for hours until the result was that his unit took exactly zero damage and the enemy took the maximum possible. Not because he couldn't win otherwise (he could very well), but because anything else than 100% perfect would have been a crap, sloppy job. That's a genuine perfectionist.
B) There are people who are just full of themselves. E.g., the hunter who not only thinks that making a step back when the enemy swings will actually cause said enemy to miss, but thinks he's the uber-genius because he's the only one who figured that out. E.g., the kind who remembers from the newbie area, with its slow NPCs, taking a step back allowed him to use his bow one more time, so he'll do the same in a level 80 dungeon and run backwards through several rooms instead of just feigning death. And he's convinced that he has the perfect solution and everyone else is doing a sloppy job.
C) There are people who redefine the problem to maxx out one aspect. E.g., he's a damage dealer, by Jove he has to maxx his DPS average at all cost. Even if it means pulling aggro off the tank, or not moving out of an imminent cone attack, or causing a wipe with an ill thought out AOE (but it maximized the number of targets he hit, thus his DPS), or whatever. Everything that doesn't maxx out that one variable is something he won't do. And if the others don't like his "perfect" solution, fuck them, they're all clueless idiots.
D) There are people who basically need medication, because they're obviously just depressed. When they're not doing a whiny drama on the guild channel about their RL and about everyone they know IRL who doesn't do what he wants them to do... it's a whiny drama about their virtual life, and everyone they met that didn't do what he wanted them to do. If all else fails, some are known to whine about a typo they got in a tell from a guy who's not a native English speaker.
RL "perfectionists" tend IMHO to be one or more of the following:
A) the real, honest kind: people who never finish. I still remember someone who, on the day before the deadline, was still working on his perfect XML parsing project for that project. (A tiny part of the project's functionality, and one he shouldn't have been doing himself: there's Xerxes.) There's _always_ one more optimization that can be done, one more clever trick that can be tried, one more label that would look better one pixel lower, etc. It's harder than you think, being a real bona-fide perfectionist.
B) the fake kind, which are basically just arrogant. They do a crap job, and then proclaim it to be perfect, just because they're that good in their own opinion. Often these are actually an illustration of the Dunning-Kruger effect [wikipedia.org]: the least competent tend to grossly overrate their skills and competence, just because they're not competent to do that judgment. They don't even know what they don't know. And conversely the most competent tend to underrate themselves, because they do have some clue of all the things they don't know.
C) the kind who'll redefine the problem to get a "perfect" solution. As I was saying RL problems are usually multi-dimensional, and increasing one aspect often loses you another. E.g., making a car engine more powerful also turns it into a gas guzzler. E.g., too many options in a GUI can actually make it less usable, or at least harder to also make it usable. Etc. A lot of OCPD kinds take such a variable and genuinely don't seem able to comprehend that it can take other values than 0 and 100%. Either you hit 100% or you're doing a crap job. But they can't hit 100% in all either. So they basically just pick one aspect and proclaim it the only thing that matters, and proclaim everyone who cares about the other aspects to be a clueless idiot. Unfortunately the actual best compromise for an actual user is rarely that. These guys tend to complain a lot that the users are clueless idiots.
D) the bitter whiner. These people rarely make something they'd rate perfect, and some don't even produce anything at all for years, but they complain about everyone and everything else. These people aren't as much into achieving perfection, as into just having something to whine about. Their very criteria for what perfection actually means, are fluid and disposable, often to the extent that they're simply the opposite of what everyone else is doing. E.g., I actually worked with one who, after he had converted the whole team to Linux (not that it was hard in a team of complete nerds) and thus lost that reason to complain, promptly switched to BSD and proclaimed both Windows _and_ Linux to be mainstream crap for idiots. He caused an indentation war fighting for the holy cause of _three_ space tabs, he fought to change the directory where the build script left the built executable, etc.
And a few other archetypes.
And just so it's not completely off topic: you can see the same in MMOs too.
A) There are people who are genuinely trapped into the neverending treadmill of needing every single achievement, every single pet, completing every single quest (even if it's 70 levels below them), paying 1000 gold on the Savory Deviate Delight recipe just because they _must_ have all the recipes in game, etc. Not because they actually need them, but because anything else wouldn't be perfect. I had a friend who in the offline game Panzer General saved before every single attack he'd make, and reload for hours until the result was that his unit took exactly zero damage and the enemy took the maximum possible. Not because he couldn't win otherwise (he could very well), but because anything else than 100% perfect would have been a crap, sloppy job. That's a genuine perfectionist.
B) There are people who are just full of themselves. E.g., the hunter who not only thinks that making a step back when the enemy swings will actually cause said enemy to miss, but thinks he's the uber-genius because he's the only one who figured that out. E.g., the kind who remembers from the newbie area, with its slow NPCs, taking a step back allowed him to use his bow one more time, so he'll do the same in a level 80 dungeon and run backwards through several rooms instead of just feigning death. And he's convinced that he has the perfect solution and everyone else is doing a sloppy job.
C) There are people who redefine the problem to maxx out one aspect. E.g., he's a damage dealer, by Jove he has to maxx his DPS average at all cost. Even if it means pulling aggro off the tank, or not moving out of an imminent cone attack, or causing a wipe with an ill thought out AOE (but it maximized the number of targets he hit, thus his DPS), or whatever. Everything that doesn't maxx out that one variable is something he won't do. And if the others don't like his "perfect" solution, fuck them, they're all clueless idiots.
D) There are people who basically need medication, because they're obviously just depressed. When they're not doing a whiny drama on the guild channel about their RL and about everyone they know IRL who doesn't do what he wants them to do... it's a whiny drama about their virtual life, and everyone they met that didn't do what he wanted them to do. If all else fails, some are known to whine about a typo they got in a tell from a guy who's not a native English speaker.