> "Perfectionism" is just avoidance. You don't want to work on something because it won't be "good enough". The keep part there is: you dont want to work on som

> "Perfectionism" is just avoidance. You don't want to work on something because it won't be "good enough". The keep part there is: you dont want to work on something. Everybody talking about perfectionism is trying to explain to you that this is not true. Perfectionists have anxiety about delivering things, and will often avoid extremely easy work in order to do harder things. I'd almost say that's the defining characteristic; you'll see a lot of things that are 95% completed, and instead of finishing and delivering, they'll switch to learning ancient Greek (edit: or add a bunch of "necessary" complications that balloon that 5% into infinity.) Go through a perfectionist's projects, find one that's close to deliverable with a few finishing touches. They will try to keep you away from it (they may even pick a fight with you), they will hide it from you, they'll tell you it's terrible, they may try to destroy it, and if you manage to pry it away and finish it, they'll beg you to take their name off of it. They will do this to the point of emotional manipulation and open threats. The avoidance of the task isn't the cause, it's the only symptom. > Ignore all this superficial language. The heart of the behaviour is in what isnt being done; that's the truth of what's going on. Perfectionism has absolutely fuck-all to do with the specific task. Perfectionists like working on things, which is why they're constantly doing it.