The Case for Perfection

The Case for Perfection by Steve Adams

Early in my career, I had taken a job as a Research and Design Engineer.  My job was supporting the existing production machines and designing the control systems for all new machines that we were developing.

The head Electrician was an older gentleman whom I liked from the very start.  Dan had a great personality and was very knowledgeable both about the machines we made and the electrical trade.  Each time I would go out to the floor to check things, Dan was ready to nitpick and I enjoyed that banter.

I knew Dan was a perfectionist and I intended to NOT give him a reason to find any flaws in my “pristine” designs.  My “mistakes” were few to begin with, but I doubled down on my efforts anyway.

As my time at that company drew to a close, I presented him with a final machine design.  A few hours later, I went to the floor to see what “mistakes” he found and in keeping with character, he had a HUGE red ink circle over a missed COMMA.

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