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It took me 30+ years to realize what I’ll teach you in 10 minutes

AsapSCIENCE | June 20, 2026



This one is a little different and a bit more personal. The psychology of perfectionism is a fascinating topic that delves into the roots of why some people feel compelled to strive for flawlessness in every aspect of their lives. It can be both good and bad, I wanted to explore the psychological reasons why.

Created by: Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown
Written by: Mitchell Moffit
Edited by: Luka Sarlija and Mitchell Moffit
Drawn by: Mitchell Moffit

References and Further Reading:

https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=106424

https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/2626/1/Curran%20%26%20Hill%20%282018%29%20PB.pdf

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fbul0000138

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-843X.100.1.98

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886919301989?via%3Dihub

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315536255-20/perfectionism-therapeutic-context-paul-hewitt-gordon-flett-samuel-mikail-david-kealy-lisa-zhang

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/10/antidote-achievement-culture?

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000138.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471015315300039?via%3Dihub

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-18582-8_8

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315536255-14/perfectionism-health-danielle-molnar-fuschia-sirois-gordon-flett-william-janssen-paul-hewitt

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-014-9947-9

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopy.12333

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2014.946625

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796717301146?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S22113649193001
20?via%3Dihub

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344878061_Flaws_in_Flawlessness_Perfectionism_as_a_New_Technology_Driven_Mental_Disorder

Written by AsapSCIENCE

Comments

This post currently has 33 comments.

  1. @caseyandtoryshalloween1236

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    I heard about this girl from Massachussetts called Alexandra Valoras. She was a young woman that loved robotics and was at the top, she was in the Model UN, she had very good grades, was a class officer and she had many friends, but perfectionism about AP classes and going to harvard drove her to take her life at the premature age of 17. This is a cautionary tale about too much perfectionism and why too much of it is never a good thing. You AND your friends and family also suffer when you have too much perfectionism. We can fix this by making a world that is better for everybody, not just extreme high acheivers and billionaires that make money they can never spend, while we have to be in this rat race of perfection, while we can't buy houses or pay off our college debts.

  2. @clawber

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    This hits so close to home. Especially the part where I realized, I'm not perfectionist because I want to be perfect. I'm perfectionist because I'm scared. Scared of having mediocre works.

  3. @extrempty

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    we should just remember, if we take a picture of the milky way galaxy, before and after doing what we fear messing up but doing it anyway, no matter the outcome, the two pictures would be identical.

  4. @AlmaTlust

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    I'm a founding member of the "Club of frustrated perfectionists" (partly coming from me having both autistic (perfectionist) and adhd (chaotic). But I left that club and joined "perfectionists anonymous" for quite a while now… 😉 Still struggling with fallbacks…

  5. @PeterDB90

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    What about someone like me – a selective perfectionist. I don't have ANY of the qualities you went through nor the descriptions of a perfectionist style person, however, I have an issue of wanting to overachieve or get the best whenever I am passionate about something.
    For example, I might not care about having the best driving record possible because that's not something I care about, but if I play a video game and really enjoy it, I want to get the platinum trophy (get every single achievement) for that game, even if at some point it becomes tedious – i.e. video games are supposed to be for fun and serve no other purpose besides bringing you fun, but I can turn a game I enjoyed into a chore and a job because I am no longer having fun but am missing 2 tedious achievements that I need to get in order to get the platinum trophy and I continue playing the game because I don't want to give up when so close to getting my goal, even though I'm no longer having fun playing the game.
    But that's video games – it comes with a sleuth of its own issues and characteristics, so let's pick something other than gaming – any hobby. Literally any hobby – if I decide to get into something, let's say riding a bicycle, then I start researching it obsessively to decide which bike I want, what upgrades I want on it, where I want to go riding, what tuning I need to do, etc. – the problem is that I'm unable to just "dip my toes" so to speak into a hobby, I immediately want to invest fully into something and want to get the best of the best – why would I buy a $200 bicycle to check to see if I like it first? That would be a waste of money because if I DO like it, I would immediately want to upgrade to a better bicycle, so instead I opt for immediately buying a $1,000.
    Idk, I just feel like I'm a mess mentally and overwhelmed. Maybe I'm just ranting xD

  6. @hippotatomash

    June 20, 2026 at 12:50 am

    The AI videos make me focused on their flaws instead of what you're saying. The content is great on its own, I'd rather watch your face and your style of writing than watching a guy morphing to a different hairstyles each time (6:50). It also leaves a sour taste in my mouth, you supposedly know the damage of AI and how they can replace your videos, and yet here you are? Or is this a new strategy to have people comment on it? 🤔

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