Perfect is not the goal

Written by Eric Hultgren

In 2019, a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #14, the comic that introduced the Green Goblin, attracted attention for an unlikely reason.

Addressed directly to someone named "Chance," the infamous Amazing Spider-Man issue has an angry message written on the front and back covers in black permanent marker.

"Go to Hell," adorns the front cover in all-capital letters. A separate message asks you to flip the comic over for further yelling.

Collectors began calling it the "Angry Girlfriend Variant” and as of today it is worth anywhere from $5000 to $100,000 depending on how much you love quarreling comic book fans.

And it's not the only example.

In 2022, a Honus Wagner baseball card, torn nearly in half, sold for $475,960. In 2023, a Fender Stratocaster smashed by Kurt Cobain sold for $596,000. Neither was remotely close to perfect.

Of course, rarity and cultural significance are doing a lot of work here. But there is something else at work.

We're living in a world where technology makes it increasingly easy to remove imperfections. We can erase blemishes, correct mistakes, polish language, reconstruct images, and generate something that seems flawless in seconds. But it leaves us yearning for something perhaps more human.

In our pursuit of making everything better, how often are we accidentally removing the very things that make it worth caring about?

Put anther way, the things we find most interesting these days are interesting precisely because something happened to them.

Further still, when does an imperfection stop being a flaw and start becoming part of the story?

There's a useful distinction between being imperfect and being distinctive.

The goal isn't to make mistakes intentionally. It's to recognize that not everything worth preserving is polished.

Because while perfection makes something easier to admire. Imperfection gives us a reason to remember it.