It took forever to paint my living room. I have an alcove kitchen, so I had to paint above the cabinets and on the side of the refrigerator too, which was a pain in the ass. As I was going around taping the room I noticed for the first time in five years just how many painting mistakes were made by the people who renovated the apartment years ago. There’s white paint everywhere.
I was being very OCD about the process—taping, using tiny brushes to get into small spots. The whole time I kept thinking the last people to do this literally could not have cared less about it and here I am being a scientist. And I realized this is a small example of how I live my entire life. I tend to try to make everything perfect. I work very hard at almost everything I do—from the comedy show to work I do for clients.
Sometimes I can frustrate the shit out of myself (when it’s just not possible to get something done the way I want to), but most of the time the results are worth the extra work. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.