4ndy

“Procrastination is often portrayed as a time management problem. But in actual fact, it’s an anxiety management problem.”
― Thomas Curran, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough

“Is that impossible version of me really worth living in fear for?”
― Thomas Curran, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough

“The cultural obsession with purity originates in the evolutionary struggle to avoid pollution. All animals are torn between the need to try new food and the fear of being poisoned. Evolution therefore equipped animals with both curiosity and the capacity to feel disgust on coming into contact with something toxic or otherwise dangerous. Politicians and prophets have learned how to manipulate these disgust mechanisms.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

“In 1989, the average young person was high-to-very-high in self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism (most people slightly agree or agree with statements), and moderate-to-low in socially prescribed perfectionism (most people neither agree nor disagree with statements). Not the healthiest profile in terms of personal expectations, admittedly, but good news regarding socially prescribed perfectionism – young people seemed to report that expectations and pressures on them weren’t excessively demanding.
By 2016, however, that profile had drastically changed. Self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism had edged even higher, which was bad enough. But it was the trend for socially prescribed perfectionism that really worried us. It surged from low-to-moderate in 1989 to moderate-to-high in 2016. Projecting those increases into the future shows us where we might be headed. By 2050, based on the models we tested, self-oriented perfectionism will move above the very high threshold (most people agree with statements) and socially prescribed perfectionism above the high threshold (most people slightly agree or agree with statements).”
― Thomas Curran, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough