Looking tensely at his patient, the seasoned doctor feverishly checked his phone for confirmation to begin the surgery. Aware that the radioactive tracer he had injected into his patient was rapidly deteriorating, he wondered how he could have prevented this situation. Could he have been more careful about when to inject the material? Could he have chosen a better date for the operation? Atul Gawande found himself questioning his ability as a healthcare provider. All humans make mistakes, however in a profession where lives are at stake, mistakes are unacceptable. The pursuit of perfection has fascinated man since the beginning of time: whether it is an athlete, a politician or a doctor, perfection has long been sought after. Yet, after so long have humans managed to get even closer to improving their performance, or has their obsession with perfection blinded them? “No choice will always be right. However, there are ways to make our choices better." (63), The pursuit of increasing one's performance and ultimately achieving perfection has created numerous opportunities. Whether it's new innovations to increase productivity or faster machines to speed up reaction times, every day new opportunities arise for humans to improve their performance. Even at the most basic level, where all the technology is stripped away, humans are naturally built to find the path of least resistance to reach their goal, very rarely will they successfully complete each step towards a goal regardless of more time-giving innovations for decisions. “We always hope for a simple solution: the one simple change that will erase a problem in one fell swoop.” (21), corners will likely be cut and steps will inevitably be skipped. Even doctors whose lives depend on them will make mistakes. For example, hospitals are... middle of paper... and can foil even the best laid plans. Perfection has no single definition, “The act of creating something perfect or better” -Merriam Webster. It is up to each individual to decide whether they have achieved perfection in their work, and the level for determining this is equally different for each individual. Ultimately, once the task is completed, people shouldn't necessarily ask themselves if they were perfect, they should ask themselves how they can improve from their experience. Achieving perfection is a constant quest, when one thinks he is perfect he must also realize that it could have been better. When an individual thinks he is perfect, he has given up the pursuit of perfection. “The best is possible. It doesn't take genius. It takes diligence. Moral clarity is needed. It takes ingenuity. And above all it takes the will to try.”