Why It’s Still Worth It to Try — Even Though Things Will Never be Perfect

Studies in Black-or-White Thinking

I often fall into the trap of perfectionism, and in particular, “black-or-white thinking.”

This is a cognitive distortion where you falsely assign everything as either black or white — there is no in between, no shades of grey. Logically, I know the world is complex. In reality, most things lie on a continuum, not a binary.

But like many others, I still find myself thinking in extremes — all or nothing.

Things Will Never Be Perfect

The result of this type of thinking is a simplistic view of the world that makes any effort feel futile.

Why would I make an effort to find a better job if I know that every job has its cons? Why would I stay / move if neither city is clearly perfect? Why would I bother repairing a friendship that is only going to fall apart again?

Someone I admire shared a great math-themed perspective shift a few years ago and it has stuck with me.

Why Effort Is Never Wasted

An asymptote is a line that a curved function approaches — but never reaches.

As the function goes to infinity, its value continuously gets closer to the line, but never quite reaches it. Just because I can’t reach perfection, doesn’t mean I can’t get closer to perfection. Said another way: I can make things better rather than perfect.

So that job you’re considering taking could be better than the one you have now. The city you’re considering moving to could align better with your ideal lifestyle than your current one does. That friendship that might forever be on the rocks might be made a lot better by the effort to repair it.

In the end, it is worth it to try and improve your life and the lives of others — even if none of it will ever be perfect.

The shape of the graph I drew naturally leads to a conversation about diminishing returns — which I think is a great topic for the next essay!