Anally Retentive?

Recently, a hairdresser told me that she had been criticized for being anally retentive bec. she's very precise in what she does.  Now, for me, it is a godsend when a beautician is conscientious, bec. if she's not, I've wasted megabux on a perm that doesn't take, and I look like Medusa to boot.  I had a mouthful reply for those people:

"Isn't that just a sad comment on today's American society, that excellence in whatever you do would be branded as 'anal'?  It's emblematic of the general cultural decay.  In Germany, slipshod, halfcheeked work receives a severe response; traditionally, Germans were reared to pursue excellence in whatever they did, whether it was a small, seemingly insignificant action, or a weighty matter."

Think of the proverbial sandgrain in the clockwork:  it can do tremendous damage.  Similarly, recently, when I had car-repair work done, someone failed to re-insert a vital tho small screw, and months later, when it was discovered by a different repair place (where they assured me that the likelihood of that screw just falling out of its own accord was virtually nil), I was told it might've already wrought engine damage.  !!! I was livid!

Or, for an example how a sloppy typo almost unleashed a major altercation between countries, check this out.

So I get pretty tired of the attitude of "don't sweat the small stuff," when in fact, it's the small stuff that can bring down a marriage, a jetliner or a Challenger.