Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do. “I want to wax the car today.”
“Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I’ll need to buy a new one at Home Depot.”
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So, what to do?
Don’t go to Home Depot for the hose.
This analogy is rather awful. The takeaway I'm getting from this is "if you hit an obstacle, stop trying." Surely that isn't what the author is trying to tell us?
I think you may be taking away a different than intended lesson. The implication is that you can wash the car with a broken hose(tape it!), or with no hose at all(buckets/pans).
Yes, now we're getting somewhere. The fallacy is in recursively accepting the first solution to a given problem. Rather, it's worthwhile to ruminate[1] on multiple solutions before embarking on one that exceeds the apparent complexity of the problem.
Digging into the analogy, though, this is a story about maintenance failures. At some point, you're going to make good with your neighbor and also repair or replace your hose, and it sounds like getting a pass for that bridge could save time in the future. Waxing your car might be a vanity project. What's most important in this moment?
Comments
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This analogy is rather awful. The takeaway I'm getting from this is "if you hit an obstacle, stop trying." Surely that isn't what the author is trying to tell us?
I think you may be taking away a different than intended lesson. The implication is that you can wash the car with a broken hose(tape it!), or with no hose at all(buckets/pans).
Yes, now we're getting somewhere. The fallacy is in recursively accepting the first solution to a given problem. Rather, it's worthwhile to ruminate[1] on multiple solutions before embarking on one that exceeds the apparent complexity of the problem.
Digging into the analogy, though, this is a story about maintenance failures. At some point, you're going to make good with your neighbor and also repair or replace your hose, and it sounds like getting a pass for that bridge could save time in the future. Waxing your car might be a vanity project. What's most important in this moment?
[1] my first yak pun in 2020