Aiming for the ideal synthesis.

The field of total synthesis has a rich history and a vibrant future. Landmark advances and revolutionary strides in the logic of synthesis have put the practicing chemist in the enviable position of being able to create nearly any molecule with enough time and effort. The stage is now set for organic chemists to aim for "ideality" in the way molecules are synthesized. This perspective presents a simple and informative definition of "ideality" and demonstrates its use during the self-evaluation of several syntheses from our laboratory.