I think one of the reasons “Pixel Perfection” is becoming a meme these days is that people want to emulate Apple, and attention to detail is one of the qualities people most associate with Apple. Having worked as part of the organization responsible for the massive undertaking of shipping OS X, however, I have a slightly different take on what makes Apple great. Certainly attention to detail is an important reason for Apple’s success. But I think another essential component of what makes Apple successful is that it is extremely disciplined and incredibly good at continuously identifying the appropriate level of imperfection in projects and products over time. That doesn’t sound terribly profound, but based on my experiences outside of Apple and my observations of the tech industry at large, perfection is a lot easier than you think. Imperfection is the hard part.