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But yak shaving is fun

74 points by parksb

by thimabi

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I always liked yak shaving, but avoided it because I knew it came with costs and tradeoffs. More recently, with the help of AI, I’ve been doing lots of it, as the costs and tradeoffs have greatly diminished. In fact, I’ve learned that building my own tools and frameworks, when done properly, comes with huge performance benefits and helps me understand the problems I’m trying to solve much more deeply. There has never been a better time for yak shaving!

by danielrmay

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Yak-shaving-shaming puts limits on the creativity of talented engineers by constraining them to existing patterns and practices or building on top of abstractions, and practically, that results in engineers and teams with less breadth. In an applied software world that's exploded in framework and library complexity in recent years, I think there are always going to be yaks in dire need of a shave.

by tombert

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Tangential but it's a story that I find funny.
At a previous job, my coworkers coined the term "Thomasing" [1], referring to me, as "the act of having a question explained so thoroughly, detailed, and long-winded that the asker has lost interest in the question that they were asking".
I thought it was pretty funny, because that does basically describe me in a nutshell.
[1] Lovingly, it was a good, fairly-tight-knit group, they weren't being jerks. We all did lighthearted ribbing.

by kown7

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My favourite Yak from Malcolm in the middle.
https://youtube.com/shorts/kSJgLA1frS4?is=2RA7C0EDEe7Mg8Fp

by dan_sbl

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This feels like what is really splitting the programming community right now- those that have typically enjoyed the journey, and those that just want to be at the destination as soon as possible.

by Cider9986

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by spelunker

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I can do a LOT more yak shaving on personal projects now. I still haven't managed to finish anything though.

by zby

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The fact that programmers can be nerd sniped into yak shaving some random libraries is the only thing that keeps Open Source running.

by bigfishrunning

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Good article, I even remember the Yak Shaving Day episode of Ren and Stimpy but never made the connection with the slang term

by DonHopkins

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by hippopotenuse

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by mystraline

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If you shave a yak, you get yak hair. And this material is like $35 a skein!
https://www.ulaandlia.com/collections/mongolian-baby-yak-woo...
Oh wait, you meant figuratively!