> It's a hard balance to strike, because there certainly have been projects where people couldn't move forward or feel pride in anything because the code was so messy. But in these situations I've found it's best to try to see the big picture and pick my battles.
This.
Sometimes it's really hard to tell when you're shaving a yak instead of fixing broken windows. What are some ways to tell you're doing the wrong one?
Yak-shaving isn't necessarily a waste of time. Sometimes you have to spend time on something locally suboptimal to get something closer to globally optimal.
With the "weekend project" idea it seems that we easily forget how real jobs often require time and struggle, even for smart people.
This.
Sometimes it's really hard to tell when you're shaving a yak instead of fixing broken windows. What are some ways to tell you're doing the wrong one?