[anon35]

Try to keep in mind that your attention to detail is almost certainly perceived by them to be fastidious, and that quietly your seniormost colleagues and leaders may well muse: "Man, if only sublinear would loosen their standards, just imagine how much faster we'd proceed". Put another way: the fact that you can't relate to OPs problem is because you're hardwired to solve it (putting things in their place) continuously, likely without exception, which means you're paying a different cost. Try to think of _that_ cost when you bristle at their solutions.

[sublinear]

I enjoy thinking about this perspective, but at the end of the day it's not slower in the long run to be meticulous. Quite the opposite.

[maxbond]

I think it's less that being meticulous is time consuming than that, in the same way that things have different values to different people, things can have different costs. I feel like if I didn't put things in convenient places that may be difficult to find later, I'd end up doing a lot of backtracking in the present.

Eg, I misplace my wireless headphones a lot. Something comes up that demands my full attention, so I take off my headphones. My headphones live at my desk.

If I walk to my desk, I'm likely to forget what I needed to do - there's lots of stuff demanding my attention on my desk, after all. Someone could also engage me in conversation on my way. Much of the time I'll return to my original task without issue, sometimes I'll get distracted for 15 minutes, sometimes I'll get distracted for an hour.

It's a lot cheaper to just put down my headphones. Or maybe it's more accurate to think of it as less risky.

[lazyasciiart]

"Meticulous" is basically defined as "the upper end of the right level of care about detail." What you call meticulous others might call unnecessarily pedantic, or obsessive. What they call meticulous, you might find sloppy.

[petesergeant]

Exactly that, it's the No True Scotsman fallacy.