I like to find things that are elegant as well as functional. It makes me happy to see or use something that is both useful and easy to use, something that fulfills its role very well and has some style. Examples are a nice looking, warm coat in exactly the right size, or a comfortable, elegant chair. Even technology can be functional and elegant.
For me, striving to surround myself with useful, elegant things leads to perfectionism. For me, perfectionism is not the feeling of "all or nothing" or never being good enough. I know when things are entirely adequate, but I sometimes get the sense that it could be better. That feeling is alluring because I know how good something can be, if I just spend a little more time or money or tweak things just a little.
This is a trap. In my work, deadlines and practice have shown me when to stop at "good enough". I've learned to make trade-offs and compromise where the results are not worth the time it would take. In the rest of my life, I'm still learning that lesson.
I still strive for beauty and function, but the trap is in thinking that some object or situation can be perfect. They can be perfect for a given time and place, but it is always temporary. What I thought was perfect in 2000 is very different than what I thought in 2005 or yesterday. What is perfect today may be entirely inadequate tomorrow.
The opposite of of the alluring perfect world is clinging to what you know, denying that something needs to change. Most examples I can think of here involve technology because it changes so quickly. Recently I gave up on the idea of a single, unified address book. People I call on the phone are not the same set as people I email with. I am friends on Facebook with people I never call or email. Not because I can't, but because connecting with them on Facebook is a better fit, a more elegant solution to staying in touch.
The punch line is that I resisted a digital phone and address book for years. It was difficult to let go of paper, even when it became clear that it was no longer a good solution for me. It was equally difficult to give up my single unified address book that has served me so well for so long. Change is hard enough without adding my own resistance.
None of this is new. I make this discovery repeatedly. All I can do is hope that each time it happens, I get better at seeing the trap of perfection and the ties of habit and inertia. The better I get at spotting them, the more quickly I can recover and reduce the amount of time I waste trying to make things perfect. But even in that recognition, I know I'll never be perfect.