Details

Being detail-oriented has its limitations and benefits. It depends on the circumstance. He who is uniformly detail-oriented often ignores the forest for the tree. If he is a botanist or an entomologist, he will go far with this perspective. If he is a hiker or forest ranger, he will get lost easily. 

Detail-orientation often develops from fear. Studying the environment for minute deviations allows the defensive person to anticipate sudden changes or oncoming harm. This is an early adaptive defense in the abused or in victims of other trauma, whether that trauma was intentional, like a childhood surgery, or unintentional. 

Dealing with post-traumatic or post-abuse-based defensiveness opens the mind to the bigger picture in situations. Intentionally retaining the talent of detail-perception makes these individuals particularly skilled in many fields. Their investment in self-development broadens their abilities. Those who have not developed detail perception until later in life find this process more difficult to adopt consciously. It often takes years of study and practice.

Being detail oriented is most limiting when that orientation causes the person to focus on flaws rather than the potential in the details. When detail-orientation is paired with lifelong depression, this can be fatal. Life becomes more difficult and more flawed as the body deteriorates with age. Pain and loss of vigor are inevitable with advanced aging. The physically health person who is depressingly obsessed with the negative details of life may turn to suicide before facing the worst of aging.

Humanist practice, while based in skeptical application of reason and science to life, is optimistic at the same time. Humanism sees the overall tendency to do good through developing the human mind, despite the tendencies to behave unconsciously under the influence of basic animal instincts. Opening the mind to the big picture is part of the evolution of the humanist. The details of practice, however, are also important to maintain a healthy lifestyle which promotes proper brain and body function. So, once again, it all comes down to balance and the middle path.