Or are you like me and screw it up by tring to make it flawless?

I build and work on alll kinds of stuff. And just when I get it working I step back, marvel at my accomplishment, notice some minor detail (not 90 degrees square, etc.) go to fix it and fark the whole thing up.

Ever go to turn that screw on a scope base so the notches line up only to strip the damn thing out?

I swear "anal retentive" is a curse. If only I couldn not notice the little things.

My nightmare stuff comes when I'm trying to make an electronic presentation or spreadsheet or something "perfect".......then the fonts corrupt or something and I'm f'ed....

I usually have enough mechanical skill to keep stuff like that "perfect" if so inclined.

Spreadsheets are my bane at work though......and I'm considered "good"....[rolleyes]

at work, i'm a perfectionist

at home, i'm a slob

i guess something is different when i'm being paid to do something --- then it has to be perfect

when i'm doing things for myself, good enough is a common phrase

Not at all.  I'm very sloppy and careless.  Most everything I do is half-assed

Hey, they invented the saying "If it's not broken don't fix it!" because of guys like us! [:D]

It's done exactly right or I don't do it at all...
Yea, I need counseling... [;)]

I think we may be brothers or something!!

I wanted to make sure I fully understood "anal retentive", so I broke out my dictionary.  I found my picture right next to the definition....

That and I have had the unquenchable desire to know how just damn near everything works.  Every toy I got when I was a kid was disassembled, inspected, and reassembled.  Drove my Mom nuts!  But later on, if she had something break on her, washer, dryer, sewing machine, I was her favorite repairman.

I hear ya on that one SA! I wrench at a HD dealership and all the fastners have to be "lined up". It IS a curse.
AB

I know what you mean.  I'm constantly jacking up the car to keep the lugs of the 4 wheels synchronized. [:D]

I work in fits and starts. Intense effort, obssessiveness to detail, with an incessant and nonstop drive until I either finish it or just burn out. Either way I grow to hate the creation - whatever it is - shelves, paintjob, workbench, patio, essay, computer program.

The thing becomes a master to me and I start to hate it for being such a cruel, unrelenting and unpleasable taskmaster. I project my perfectionist obsessions onto the inanimate object I'm working on until I either hate it so much I abandon it as yet another imperfect unfinished project or if I do finish it I rarely look at it with much satisfaction. Usually more of a resentment for the punishment I had to endure to get it "just right" (which it never is).

Looking at the finished project sometimes gives me flashbacks of "PTJD" (post-traumatic job disorder) where I relive the frustration of working for hours or days with little food or sleep, obsessing about that 91-degree angle, that faint streak of light color or that phrase that just doesn't flow right. I get to the point where I don't even want to see the damn thing once I'm done with it.

You don't have enough choices there [b]SA[/b]. For me - it's never "good enough" and it's never "perfect" either.

Like now.




Fuck it.

This is my gift, this is my curse...

I found the easiest way is to just count how many left and right turns you make while driving, then when you get home do the necessary turning to bring them back into balance.
Now you have more time to make sure all the marks on the carpet from the vacuum cleaner are consistent. There's nothin' worse than sloppy vaccum lines.

Oh Goddammit, I hadn't noticed my lugs were misaligned.

That’s ridiculous!!

Just replace them with hex head screws.

Problem solved!!  [:D]

I do the exact opposite.  I get bored with stuff when I get to the final, nitpicky stuff, and the I always stop before I'm a 100% finished, or rush it and cut oorners towards the end to just get it done.

... and then later I invariably regret my impatience.

"Nono, it's not quite done, just a small adjustment and it'll be...GODDAMMIT!  Now I have to start all over again!"