My father, an aeronautical engineer and one of the designers of the reentry heat shields for the Apollo spacecraft, was extremely methodical. Even when doing projects around the house, he would measure and remeasure before making a final cut.
This logic also led to his being quite candid about other issues, so even before my parents became elderly and ill, we were a family who was not afraid to talk about death. Dad always told us that he wanted to die in his sleep.