San Diego's cursed weather

Perfect weather is cursed marketing. San Diego knows it.

What? How is that possible, you're thinking from within the miserable storms currently pounding the Great Lakes and Plains of the US interior.

San Diego has perfect weather! you insist.

Yes, yes. We've heard it all before. The city consistently ranks among the best cities in the U.S. for its abundant sunshine and mild temps. SEO shows it. San Diego hits the top of the 谷歌 search for "best weather in the U.S."

But it turns out "perfect weather" is cursed marketing. Perhaps, FOX 5 San Diego (KSWB-TV) meteorologist Chrissy Russo will agree.

I'll explain why in five reasons.

1. "Perfect" is beyond management.

Nobody really controls "perfection." Certainly, nobody controls "perfect weather." When it rains, who's fault is that? When we have colder-than-average temps of 60 degrees in April (I know, gasp!), who do we go to? People complain. People were promised something "perfect" whose perfection is beyond anybody's control. The very promise of perfection leads to its curse as time wears down the alleged quality of perfection and management is left scrambling with a growing stack of complaints.

2. It's just not true.

It's just not true that San Diego's weather is perfect. Torrential rains flooded San Diego back in January, leaving thousands of city denizens destitute and hundreds homeless yet to this day. San Diego annually "suffers" several months of dim, overcast skies dubbed May Gray and June Gloom and then months of sweltering Santa Ana winds that actually exacerbate mental health symptoms. Perhaps it's because San Diegans were promised perfection?

As the lack of rain builds toward November, allergens, dust, and pollutants swirl in the atmosphere, kicked up by millions of cars and blown about in the hot winds. All expectations of "perfection" ultimately meet the disastrous consequences of reality, which is the only non-semblance of truth San Diego truly has.

3. "Perfect weather" turns out to be relative.

I have noticed that San Diego's "perfect weather" is based in lack. What do I mean? San Diego's weather is perfect because it lacks extreme heat and cold, it lacks snow, it lacks consistent rainfall, it lacks tornadoes and other extreme weather events. Mild weather is as much a lack of a severe climate as it is a thing in itself. Perfection becomes based in something it is not. "Perfect weather" becomes a defense against so-called climactic imperfections such as tornadoes in Oklahoma but also atmospheric rivers in Southern California.

Then there's the relative problem that your perfect is not my perfect. General perfection hits the wall of individual preference. I like rainy days in the mid-50s! They provide the perfect excuse to stay inside and practice winter hygge. Sweltering summer days are the best for nursing ice-cold beverages. Seventy degrees and sunny can get boring, ponderous, dreary in its own right. Dully perfect. Yet for others, room temperature, breezy and sunny skies are the only perfect way. It's all relative.

4. Perfection is an unrealistic expectation.

Perfection is just an unrealistic expectation. Perfection always seems to be letting San Diegans down. Today is a little too hot. August's 85-degree days are insufferable. June gloom is too overcast. January is freezing without central heating. Why are the weekends always cloudy? The coast never warms up. This morning was too sunny. I can't stand the rain! In other words, everything is hysterically downhill from perfect. We become like Goldilocks, ever chasing the perfect day we thought we had had and had coming to us.

5. Perfection is immeasurable.

There are no KPIs for perfection. Part of the reason for this is in example number 3. Perfection is based in lack. Perfection is relative to other measurements rather than its own. Perfection demands the measurement of something else imperfect. Perfection thus may only be satisfied in the dissatisfaction of another. Tautologically, perfection can only be measured by a deviation from its own perfection. What a trap! In order for perfection to exist, it also must not. Either San Diego weather is always perfect, which we have learned it isn't, or another place's weather is always worse, which is also not true. Rarely, the weather in Los Angeles is nicer. Ultimately, perfection can never measure up to itself.

In conclusion, marketers should steer clear of words like "perfect." Such ambiguous labels turn out to be cursed.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to enjoy my day. The weather out in San Diego is 69 degrees, sunny and dry – just one degree shy of perfect.

Read more of Elie Sherman's writing in the AI newsletter, GO GO GO AI.