How do we escape the perfection trap? - with Thomas Curran
We're witnessing an alarming surge in burnout and depression. Could this be caused by our society's perpetual strive for perfection? And how can we escape it?
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Join Thomas Curran as he explores the paradoxical effects of perfectionism on everything from performance to social and financial inequality. He shows what we can do as individuals to resist the modern-day pressure to be perfect.
Discover what you need to prioritise, meet the world where it is and strive for purpose instead of more by embracing the power of 'good enough' in your life.
This talk was recorded at the Ri on 14 September 2023.
Thomas Curran is a British Psychological Society chartered social psychologist, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His primary area of expertise is the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts mental health. His most notable work is the theory of cultural influences on perfectionism, which rose to especial prominence following a 2017 publication of the first systems-level cohort study to show that perfectionism is on the rise in American, Canadian, and British college students.
He is the author of over 30 published papers and book chapters on related topics and he has received numerous awards for his scholarship and research. Informed by his research and expertise in data analysis, he has previously lectured to undergraduates in the UK and Australia.
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Is there a reason you don't post the whole thing, I always feel like there's more to be learned from the questions and answers after such a presentation
Nobodies perfect, I'm a nobody. Therefore, I'm perfect 😂 thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
I heard a Buddhist monk say that once.
Did he omit mentioning the challenging corporate goals imposed on employees? Regardless of successful sales, the company sets even higher targets each time, creating an environment where it becomes nearly impossible to work stress-free. I'm unsure if this directly relates to the topic of perfectionism, but there seems to be a tendency to demand the best and, in turn, place a significant burden on the workforce.
The root of the issue in such case is the "infinite growth" necessitated by the capitalist system. It's generally better to solve the root of the problem instead of taking aspirin pills.
Consider this philosophy: "if the employees managed to reach the goal, it was set too low". Also, setting the goal too high has a double benefit: a) now they're continuously wrecking themselves and their health trying to achieve it (which they can't), and b) you got them feeling guilty for failing to achieve it, which can be exploited in a million wonderful ways any time you want to force them to do something they wouldn't normally agree to or deny them something they ask of you.
In summary, what we are dealing with is the fallout of the past century-plus of hyper-capitalist techniques and goals, which are dependent on the endless expansion and exploitation of various forms of (mostly out-group) human misery, now further intensified in the last decade or two by the explosion of the always-on information ecosystem due to social media and the 24-hour news-and-entertainment cycle, all finally pushing the limits of our collective mental (and physical) health past the point of sustainability. I'm glad this issue is getting some attention from academia. Actually _fixing_ the problem in a timely manner without resorting to... extreme measures... is going to be a much, much harder endeavor... Well done sir! You've hit upon so many bullseyes on this topic, and I can only hope that more people will take note before this epidemic becomes truly deadly.
What to do when the stress of working is greater than the stress of procrastination? Willpower is finite.
I have never been perfect. I have never made or done anything that would be deemed as perfect, but I do see how some people try to achieve perfection.
I'm perfectly imperfect with perfect imperfections
Do you factor in the Pareto Principle (80-20 rule)? How does perfectionism interact with this in eg a workplace?
timestamping: 12:30 perfectionism is a way of existing in the world
I'm trying to care... sort of. But this seems like one of the _least_ important societal problems I can imagine. Sure, some individuals are overstressed, but it's not worth my time listening to sombody worry about them.
A very interesting exposition, thank you. The graph at 45:49 is particularly powerful in illustrating the fragility that perfectionism bestows.
"But perfectionism has always been there" ...But. HAS it, really?! Seems like one of the many unhelpful assumptions we just run with, without much historical proof. In fact, I immediately think of Alain de Bottons intellectual cosmos, and his ´School of life´, reminding us of how many of our unconscious daily-life-operating-system ideas have a very, very recent origin in say, romanticism, or in this case rather, industrialization. Somehow I doubt that for the majority of our cultural evolution, let alone biological one, perfectionism really was that much of a present concept.
A fundamental misunderstanding about the college admissions scandal was that in this case the parents were engaging in cheating the system because they had LOW expectations of their kids. Some of the kids admitted zero interest in attending college at all and would have preferred to pursue other interests of their own. There was a sense from some of them that they intended to skate by on their parents’ affluence, regardless.
This is not a new problem, albeit more severe. I refer you to Piet Hein, specifically to his grook on wisdom: The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less. The problems I see with Perfecionism is that it must be all inclusive. I suffered from it as a youngster and defeated it as follows. A failure presented me with a choice: I need to decide if it was really important and I want to devote my life to it. If no, then do something else. I decided against management quite early as I really enjoyed doing things instead of getting others to do it. Instead, I chose a technical path. I ended up in software development and focused on one measure: the number of errors in a body of code. I recognized that there would always be errors, but I could work in a way that reduced the number as I learned better techniques. I experimented a lot, with almost all experiments failing in some way. That did not matter as I learned from them. I read a lot and tried to master the ideas of leading experts. Many of those fared as well as my own experiments. I had a visual simile: the production of Sherry. It was done in two connected oak casks. Raw wine and wine spirits are added to the top barrel. It can mingle with the contents of the lower barrel. The Sherry is periodically drawn from the lower barrel. I would continuously add raw techniques to my set of skills, allowing them to mature. With time, other techniques would become less useful and I drew them off. I stopped worrying about perfection, instead accepting flaws but making them less and less and less.
Yeah, I would call it low ego epidemic. We are normalizing being driven by unexamined anxiety. Often these people have elitist behavior and project laziness onto others to defend their anxiety.
nobody is perfect...🥰
Is that a mistake in the video title? Simon Curran? Or Thomas Curran?
Thanks for spotting this - now fixed!
Once you realise its doesn’t actually exist. It’s only humans mind of aspirations that you would be In search of▪️sorry I should add the perfection that humans shout about is only self satisfaction
Accept the fact that living in a perfect world is impossible and unbearable. Enjoy the inevitable chaos.
Perfectionism is Dunning-Kruger applied to an ethical perspective on life.
This comment section is unreal.
In aerospace work, perfection is mandatory. Let that sink in next time you board a jetliner.
Not really, the good enough bar is just higher. You don’t need to be perfect, you need to make a plane that doesn’t crash.
@@pif5023 you sound like a shop manager I remember from 1972.. Things have changed, tolerances are tighter, nominal dimensions are targeted, & quality systems have dramatically improved.
HAHAHAHA. Tell that to Boeing...
@@AttilaAsztalos I'm talking about the manufacturing side of aerospace. Boeing may have bean- counter & engineering issues.
I started dating my AI girfriend and find her perfect.
Jeff Bezos is frowning, Jocko Willink is disgusted, Elon Musk is asking me what have I done to help the world.
Dude! I just set playback speed to 2X. YOUR VOICE is still fully comprehensible. Translation: YOU NEED to ingest high dose caffeine BEFORE recording. Why? Because you're putting people to SLEEP!
If he had spoken just 18% faster, that would have been PERFECT! 😂
Falling asleep is why i’m here
STOP the CAP! Nobody feels good with anything less than perfect. Ask any Bride: "Sweetheart, which diamond would you like?" Ask any ASIAN parent: "Is a "B-grade" on child's report card o.k.? Ask anybody: " Is 99.9% safe airliner landings o.k.? (Note: IF Chicago O'Hara airport had only 99.9% safe landings,three airplanes would crash land daily)
Humans will always strike for the perfection because that's just how we are, anything less is degrading.
Yet more mumbo-jumbo claptrap from the R.I. with an author book to flog. The Royal Institution needs to have its Royal Charter removed. It's gone downhill probably to the point of no recovery possible. Unsubscribed in disgust!
Tell me you are a perfectionist without telling me
Yeah, I hate the NPC's in my life too. 2/10, wouldn't recommend.
There are so many self help books in book stores, I am no longer even reading books anymore. This is like the worst channel ever, they go around assaulting, blocking women who need help. Even if I could afford it, I never want to buy anything recommended in this place. This is the state of women's rights in the UK, they should be running night clubs and not universities. Unsubscribing
This is the worst channel ever, unsubscribing