2015

[mbok jamu]

Meticulous

People who are meticulous can be pretty annoying, what with their extreme attention to detail. But if that person is, say, your surgeon or your accountant, you'll want them to be meticulous.

The Latin root of meticulous is metus, which means "fear", so it's easy to see how eventually meticulous got its meaning. Someone who's meticulous is afraid of what will happen if they're not careful enough to get every detail right. "Detail oriented" and "perfectionist" are other ways of describing someone who cares deeply about the small things and about getting things exactly right, every time. Concert pianists must be meticulous, because audiences are always listening for wrong notes.

If you are meticulous and you enjoy things being neat and tidy or generally aesthetically pleasing, it is most likely a character trait. Potentially could be obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) which differs from OCD.

OCPD is often confused with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite the similar names, they are two distinct disorders - OCD is an anxiety disorder and OCPD is a personality disorder. Some OCPD individuals do have OCD and the two are sometimes found in the same family, sometimes along with eating disorders. People with OCPD do not generally feel the need to repeatedly perform ritualistic actions - a common symptom of OCD - and usually find pleasure in perfecting a task, whereas people with OCD are often more distressed after actions.

So I potentially have OCPD. That explains why I enjoy working with the systems so much, having everything configured perfectly. Even at home no one finds pleasure in cooking, baking, ironing or cleaning as much as I do.