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On the surface perfectionism sounds like one of those flaws you readily admit to because really it\u2019s a modest way of saying, see, I\u2019m not perfect after all, but really, I\u2019m pretty close. Like you're admitting to being flawed like everyone else but that your particular vice is the relentless pursuit of having no vices. It\u2019s like you\u2019re saying, "no, really, I\u2019m not the person you think I am. Sometimes I rescue too many kittens, or give too much money away.\u201d Oh, me? I\u2019m a perfectionist. Like you\u2019re just too much of a good thing.

And you know when you stack that up against all the other crap that we sweep into the dark corners and hope no one will see, it\u2019s pretty benign. But in the creative life, if what we\u2019re talking about is the way we make things, and get things done, the idea of perfect and the quixotic search for it, is deeply self-sabotaging.