Unnecessary optimizations cripple progress
while Involuntary attention switch is good for preventing tunnel vision — e.g., trying out new things, window shopping for better tools — it can go into a case of optimizing every choice
this is a form of Overanalyzing slow you down
additionally, you could think of this addiction from taking too much advantages as you can; it always create the impression that there is an absolute way to do it and you just haven't figured it out yet; recall that Tradeoffs lock yourself in a position
unnecessary optimizations are unnecessary wasting of time that could've been used for something else more worthy; in a way, you are Overlearning; the problem, however, is it can be addicting as you dig deeper into the rabbithole
this is affecting people of all walks of life that it has various names: productivity porn, yak shaving, and pre-optimizing software; in other words, the perfectionist stereotype
a lot of the improvements we do often comes from new ideas; thus, there is an incentive to present it as a new and shiny thing that you should try it out; sometimes this easily reaches Professional narcissism
most of the time, this can be harmful:
this can be seen with self-help and productivity culture with gurus presenting themselves as someone who finally figured it out how to get into a constant productive state — e.g., a new method of note-taking, habit management methods, productivity applications showcase
part of the Linux ricing desktop community where software are fetishized to make their computing experience to be more productive — e.g., text editors galore, tiling window managers versus traditional desktops, command line versus graphical tools, quests for mouseless computing, learning new keyboard layouts
the gaming community has much emphasis on how to game more effectively with specialized mice and keyboards, wide monitors, and software setups
on programming, there is a tendency for making the optimized program at early stages or unnecessary optimizations on non-critical code
the simplest solution is to get into the mindset of "good enough" and reflecting if it is really worth it at the end; remember that Most of the work is done from smaller amount of effort