Term of the Day: Yak Shaving

by Chad Miller /// September 25th, 2007

I’m sure we all have heard the old story about the man who wanted to get some work done around his house on a Saturday.

The man decides he’ll start by cleaning the leaves off his roof, but realizes that he needs to fix his ladder so he can get up there. So he gets out his ladder and tools, but realizes he doesn’t have all the tools he needs. So he gets in the car to go get the right tools from the tool shop, but realizes he needs gas. And on the way to the gas station, he realizes he needs some cash. While going to the bank, he realizes he left his checkbook at home, so he goes home to get it…and so forth.

A situation like this is called “Yak Shaving.” The term was apparently invented by a guy at MIT (source) to describe “Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you’re working on.” (source)

I came across this term today in an article I was reading on one of the many blogs in my Google Reader. Ironically enough, when I tried to investigate the term by clicking on it (it was a link), it took me to another page which took me to yet another page…but I eventually got the definition.