I'm not perfect, but I'm perfect for you
Why is it so hard for people to be perfect?
I mean, am I missing something? How hard is it to remember simple things you're supposed to remember? Or actually follow-up on the things you commit to doing? How hard can it be to be aware of your surroundings? Or to have the self-control to respond rationally to life's challenges? Or seek the self-knowledge to avoid being hopelessly fucked up? Don't people learn anything?
All my life, I've aspired to perfection: military precision, and machinelike competence. People who know me think that I have some kind of super-human ability to honor my committments, follow through on what I say I'll do, remember things that most people wouldn't, and provide a completely honest and sincere opinion.
In my days in consulting, I really came into my own, because my employer and peers demanded a preternatural degree of skill, self-control, and presence of mind. I thrived there, having finally found a place where my machinelike precision was appreciated, and where I could actually count on my coworkers to demonstrate the same admirable degree of perfection.
So it surprises me when so many people blatantly parade their humanity where everyone can see it. I look at my friends and I see them suffering for their ignorance, laziness, and inefficiency. And I'm somewhat surprised when they express admiration or surprise when I call up facts that they'd forgotten, or actually do something for them that they forgot they'd asked me to do! Somehow, that has made me "godlike" in their eyes.
Of course, perfection comes at a cost. It does take some degree of effort to actually pay attention to life as it happens. But I find that infinitely more satisfying than stumbling around like one of those toy cars that bounces off one wall before heading off in another random direction. That's hardly the behavior I'd expect from a presumably sentient person, and I have much higher expectations of myself than that.
Of course, one might ask whether all this preoccupation with perfection is a little neurotic. Sure, there's an obsessive component to it, but it's that very obsessiveness that makes it possible for a fallible human to approach perfection. Instead, I'd ask why we should tolerate sloppiness and imperfection and error, when it's so easy to rise above all that and live one's life with honor, dignity, and pride.
It's just not that hard, and it freaks me out that people think integrity and efficiency aren't traits that real humans should strive for.