re: Cooking the perfect steak - man card on the table

Pat your meat dry before beginning anything. Wet meat won't get that good crunchy crust because it'll steam off when it hits the high fire instead of searing. Step 1 is always to take some paper towels and dry off your wet steaks. If you know a day ahead that you'll be cooking, I'm a big fan of seasoning them after that, then laying them out uncovered in a single layer on a cooling rack set in a sheet pan and putting them in the bottom of your fridge overnight. Fridges are incredibly dry environments and the cooling rack will let air circulate around them to evaporate away any surface moisture. Also, salting them before setting them in the fridge to dry is basically a dry brine.

If you're cooking directly over a grill, from raw: meat thermometer. Some people here will shite all over this for a steak, but you stick the tip of that thermometer right in the center of the steak and when it hits 2-3 degrees below the doneness you're shooting for, pull the steak and let it coast up to what you want. Don't use time, feel, the phases of the moon, number of cricket chirps, etc. to tell you when the steak is done. When a good meat thermometer beeps for the temperature you're aiming for, it's done. Over time, as you cook the same cut of meat on the same grill with the same heat over and over, you'll learn how your setup cooks and will then be able to cook your steak over your grill with your favorite charcoal to a perfect doneness by counting how many times a frog croaks on a May night. Until then: thermometer.

High heat will get the good sear that you want. Put it on the fire and leave it the hell alone to develop the crust you want before flipping it to crust up the other side. Better a good sear on one side than a shitty sear on both sides because you couldn't leave it alone and flipped it so much that neither side got enough heat to crust really good. Once both sides are good and crusted up, then you can flip more often to keep your crust from becoming charcoal, but even then, handle the meat as little as possible. (insert porn joke here)

As for seasoning, I'm in the "salt the hell out of it, grind some pepper, and call it done" camp. I prefer the taste of a well seasoned piece of beef as opposed to a well spiced piece of beef. I like the taste of beef. (insert second porn joke here)

ETA: Or, if you're Gaston, just unwrap it and start eating.