The Pursuit of Perfection

There is a temptation in life to imagine perfection.  We think about actions that we can take and we think about the subsequent outcomes and we picture in our minds what the perfect outcome would be.  For example we can try to bake a cake, and we can picture it in our mind as to what it will look like.  We then go through the process of mixing the batter and then baking it and eventually we get the output of our work in the form of a cake and it is an inevitability that we will compare it to what we pictured in our minds.

Perfection is a useful concept when it comes to aspiration and ambition but it is an impractical concept when it comes to evaluating the final result.  This is because in almost every single thing we do in life, despite how hard we try, we will never achieve perfection for the simple reason that perfection is to be without flaws, and humanity is flawed, ergo perfection is to be without humanity.  There is a reason we use machines and computerized production processes whenever we need precision.  There is a reason we don't rely on humans any longer for mass produced products - they can't create uniformity the way computers and machines can.  No matter how great the artist is, they will never paint two pictures that are completely identical, there will be flaws between the two, granted with the level of skill they possess, the apparent flaws will decline to the point where you have to look very closely to actually spot the difference.

If you take dating and the pursuit of someone to spend your life with, there is a temptation here too which encourages us to define the perfect person.  We picture them in our minds and we add detail in excess until the image we create is as full and complex as we can make it.  As before however this can be useful for defining aspiration or ambition but it serves no real purpose in reality when evaluating the final result - in this case the people we actually end up dating.  The image of perfection you created in your mind is one that can never truly be achieved, you can come close depending on how detailed you made the depiction but no-one you ever meet in life will ever be the person you depicted in your mind because that person only exists within your mind.

Despite on some level the fact that everyone knows this is the case, we still try to pursue perfection and we still work not only towards our own vision and interpretation of what that is but also towards a collective vision.  We as a society collectively define what we believe perfection to be, however this depiction is often fluid.  When you look back throughout history and compare past and present you can see quite quickly how style and trends evolved and how the definition of perfection changed.  The definition in itself isn't even one that can be considered to be universal, as the more you travel and the more you experience of other cultures the more you begin to see that perfection is subjective and that ultimately it is a matter of opinion, not something objective that can be considered an empirical fact.

Perfection is a nice idea, but when you pursue it, remember it is never achievable in itself, it should only determine direction, not a destination, this and that ultimately the real question is not whether or not something is perfect, but rather, whether or not you can accept the imperfections.