Comment by CharlieDigital
18 hours ago
I procrastinate a lot on hard tasks and usually it's because I don't yet fully understand the risks with each decision that goes into the design.
I think for younger engineers "fail fast" makes a lot of sense; there's not enough of a foundation of experience to tell right from wrong so the only way to learn is to fail.
For more experienced engineers, there's a greater sense of "I have a sense where this can fail; how do I design around that?"
It's not that a more experienced engineer will know exactly how it fails, but that there are modalities of failure that have been encountered so the goal is to design with some flexibility or optionality in mind. And sometimes, this just requires a bit of "gestation" or "percolation" before carving the path.
I think of it like an experienced sculptor sizing up a block of marble before making the first strike with a chisel. It's a kind of procrastination, but really, its a process of visualizing the path.
My expert machinist friend (mold/tool maker) calls it "couch machining". It appears like he isn't working but really in his head he is laying out the entire process from start to finish. Then when he goes to CAM it up it flows very quickly and the entire part is already mostly planned.
I think often people who don't visualize in their head can't grasp this...it appears as inactivity. The reality is it seems to be a hyperactivity...procrastination comes from having too many tasks and directions with unsolved solutions. (in my case...)
Another way to put it I have heard is "Thinking is working". If it doesn't appear like I am working...I am likely thinking.
Wow, that's a really insightful perspective. I often feel a bit ashamed for reading hacker news or some other IT related post on the net when I know I should be doing some development task. Your description pretty accurately describes the reasons for my procrastination. Thank you.
This is a solid observation.
I'd say that procrastination is bad when it drives you into some unproductive but addictive behavior, like watching silly tiktok videos, etc. It can be actually good if you do "structured procrastination": can't force myself to do task X, but find solace in solving problem Y really neatly. Another approach is to take a walk, do push-ups, etc, anything that changes your focus away from mental tasks, and preferably brings more oxygen to your brain.
Yet another approach is analytical: "I can't stomach doing that thing! But what thoughts or feelings make me loathe it so much? Where do they come from?" Interesting insights can follow.