If you’ve ever set out to do one simple thing only to find yourself five tangents deep, like hanging a picture, only to realize you need a hammer from the shed but the shed is locked, and the key is missing, so now you’re cleaning out junk drawers, you’ve experienced yak shaving.
The term “yak shaving” was popularized by MIT researcher Carlin J. Vieri in the 1990s and later spread widely through the tech world thanks to Seth Godin and developer communities. It refers to the chain of tasks you have to complete before you can do what you actually set out to do.
Imagine you’re trying to update your website. But before you can do that, you need to install a software tool. That tool doesn’t work until you update your computer. But updating your computer means freeing up space, which leads to deleting old files, which reminds you to back everything up first. Suddenly, you’re an hour in and haven’t even touched the website. That’s yak shaving, getting sidetracked by a chain of unexpected tasks before you can do the thing you meant to do.
Software development is filled with dependencies, technical, procedural, and even human. Each system relies on others to function, and small tasks often require clearing blockers that are only tangentially related. It’s why yak shaving happens frequently in development, quality assurance, and even design.
While yak shaving can feel like a waste of time, it’s not always bad. Sometimes it uncovers technical debt, exposes inefficiencies, or solves future problems. But it helps to pause and ask:
When you’re mindful of the yak trail, you can stop spinning your wheels and stay focused on delivering value, not just wrangling distractions.
Yak shaving is the tech world’s term for getting sidetracked by a series of prerequisite tasks. It’s common, sometimes useful, but always worth keeping in check.
So go ahead, shave the yak if you must. But maybe ask it a few questions first.
Posted in Tech Talk
