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Yak Shaving: A Short Lesson on Staying Focused - American Express Technology

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When coding, it’s important to avoid distractions and learn to stay focused.

Published August 09, 2018 Yak Shaving: A Short Lesson on Staying Focused Yak-Shaving Rabbit-Hole Technical-Debt “Yak shaving” (or “shaving a yak”) is a term coined by Carlin Vieri, an MIT Ph.D., in the ’90s after watching an episode of “The Ren & Stimpy Show.” But what is yak shaving? Yak shaving refers to a task, that leads you to perform another related task and so on, and so on — all distracting you from your original goal. This is sometimes called “going down the rabbit hole.” Let’s look at this real-world example. You want to bake an apple pie, so you head to the kitchen. In the hallway,

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