Perfectionism is not a virtue of a person, and I’ve already mentioned this. wrote. At the same time, I would like to use another illustration. Perfectionists seek perfection. People, for some reason, torment themselves and others in search of perfect solutions. However, perfection is merely a mathematical abstraction, and it is impossible to achieve.
It is impossible to measure exactly 17 millimeters. At all. You can always measure “a little more than 17” or “a little less than 17.” But exactly—no. You can’t place a point on a drawn line segment. The segment itself—a mark made by a pencil—is thick enough and not a straight line at all—just look at it under a microscope—and a point on the segment is a round spot. You can’t find and show a point.
Technical solutions that require absolute precision are meaningless. You can’t hang a picture on two nails positioned one above the other. The picture will always hang on one of the nails, and if that nail fails, the second one will then experience not a static load, but a dynamic one, and will come loose as well.
However, in business, we often encounter ideas that border on mad mathematical abstraction rather than real life. For example, when searching for candidates for a job vacancy. If we take a single criterion, say, a person’s qualifications, and represent it on a scale, marking the qualifications of the ideal candidate as a point on that scale, we would have to filter out 99.999% of all candidates—they would either be underqualified or overqualified. And the candidate search continues with remarkable persistence. Of course, work experience is usually indicated as a range, for example, “from two years.”
At the same time, the ideal candidate is not just one set of criteria, but a dozen. Often, these criteria don’t even overlap. For instance, while it might still be possible to find someone with at least two years of work experience and some knowledge of English—since these skills don’t contradict each other—finding a person who is both an excellent negotiator and a top-notch programmer, especially in a very specific field, is already impossible. Yet people are still searching. Or take another example: the entire pharmaceutical market is looking for pharmacists who can sell, but they can’t find any. These are mutually exclusive skills. You can’t be a weightlifter and a biathlete at the same time. You can’t be a nerdy introvert and a charismatic communicator simultaneously.
I recently came across a job vacancy that required a person who was equally skilled in Photoshop and databases, familiar with two or three programming languages, fluent in one foreign language, and had a solid financial background, particularly in investments. Additionally, they needed specific work experience that translated into practical knowledge in a particular company (the only competitor) for a specific position, and all of this for relatively low pay. In other words, it wasn’t just a matter of poaching someone. They also needed someone with Photoshop and investment skills. When you show them a candidate who is more or less suitable (which is already a miracle given the requirements), except for the specific experience, they still turn up their noses. The text for translation: pointless. 🙂.
Everyone, serve the golden fish with mayonnaise, and make sure it can still grant wishes.