Also interesting to ponder *perfectionism* as an extension of what you covered here. I was just thinking about how the perfectionist (unhealthily) keeps going beyond a natural point of contentedness, even though there are diminishing returns (in the augmented quality of end product) and minimal added contentedness the further he goes, and yet... the perfectionist carries on, continually seeking some higher level of achievement/excellence that he never actually arrives at. Seems like the perfectionist is driven by an irrational obsession, rarely landing at actual contentment, but sort of spinning his wheels while getting nowhere (at least seemingly nowhere to most "regular" people, since most everyone would never notice the difference between 99.99999% and 100%.)
Ah, interesting! Your view here sort of puts a spin on perfectionism or even some kinds of OCD-type behavior. (I say OCD-type because I don’t know much about genuine OCD.) So one way to think of perfectionism is that it’s as if your “contentedness” settings are too high – you’re not content enough. This idea resonates with a lot of the overall sort of Darwinian approach to pathologies, when your “settings” are too high (e.g., too anxious about little stuff, anxious) or too low (e.g., not anxious enough, reckless). So, yeah, maybe it’s useful to think of OCD-style rituals as the failure of a stop rule: ok, the door is locked, so I can leave safely. I’ll see what the other Fossils think about that, but I like the idea of thinking about cases in which the stop rule has broken down. Interesting!
Also interesting to ponder *perfectionism* as an extension of what you covered here. I was just thinking about how the perfectionist (unhealthily) keeps going beyond a natural point of contentedness, even though there are diminishing returns (in the augmented quality of end product) and minimal added contentedness the further he goes, and yet... the perfectionist carries on, continually seeking some higher level of achievement/excellence that he never actually arrives at. Seems like the perfectionist is driven by an irrational obsession, rarely landing at actual contentment, but sort of spinning his wheels while getting nowhere (at least seemingly nowhere to most "regular" people, since most everyone would never notice the difference between 99.99999% and 100%.)
Ah, interesting! Your view here sort of puts a spin on perfectionism or even some kinds of OCD-type behavior. (I say OCD-type because I don’t know much about genuine OCD.) So one way to think of perfectionism is that it’s as if your “contentedness” settings are too high – you’re not content enough. This idea resonates with a lot of the overall sort of Darwinian approach to pathologies, when your “settings” are too high (e.g., too anxious about little stuff, anxious) or too low (e.g., not anxious enough, reckless). So, yeah, maybe it’s useful to think of OCD-style rituals as the failure of a stop rule: ok, the door is locked, so I can leave safely. I’ll see what the other Fossils think about that, but I like the idea of thinking about cases in which the stop rule has broken down. Interesting!