wiki/2021-07-05-12-36-41.org

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