Summer re-run: Yak shaving

[Aaron Adler <cadlerun@>]

There are a several news stories that I could have used for a message 
this week:

- Scooter Libby: obstructs an investigation into BushCheney and gets
his sentence commuted because it was "too harsh."
- Appeals court throws out a verdict against the domestic wiretapping
program because the plaintiffs didn't show that they had standing to 
sue. How exactly are they supposed to know that they were wiretapped, 
isn't that the point?
- Or a message reminding you that Live Earth (http://www.liveearth.org/)
is tomorrow and we should all do our part to help solve the climate crisis.


But, I'm not going to write a message about any of those.

Instead, we're going to follow the lead of the TV broadcasters and 
re-run some classic GSB messages over the next few weeks. If you have a 
message from the archive 
(http://projects.csail.mit.edu/gsb/archives.html) that you want us to 
re-run, let us know.


We start with a classic message about "yak shaving" that is the second 
link on Google if you search for "yak shaving." The first link is a 
wikipedia page that links to the GSB message. It's also the second most 
popular message in the archive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeremy H. Brown
Subject: GSB: 5:30pm, 7ai playroom
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 16:00:56 -0500 (EST)

"Yak shaving." Our very own Carlin Vieri invented the term, and yet it
has not caught on within the lab. This is a shame, because it describes
all too well what I find myself doing all too often.

You see, yak shaving is what you are doing when you're doing some
stupid, fiddly little task that bears no obvious relationship to what
you're supposed to be working on, but yet a chain of twelve causal
relations links what you're doing to the original meta-task.

Here's an example:

"I was working on my thesis and realized I needed a reference. I'd seen
a post on comp.arch recently that cited a paper, so I fired up gnus.
While I was searching the for the post, I came across another post whose
MIME encoding screwed up my ancient version of gnus, so I stopped and
downloaded the latest version of gnus.

"Unfortunately, the new version of gnus didn't work with emacs 18, so I
downloaded and built emacs 20. Of course, then I had to install updated
versions of a half-dozen other packages to keep other users from hurting
me. When I finally tried to use the new gnus, it kept crapping out on my
old configuration. And that's why I'm deep in the gnus info pages and my
.emacs file -- and yet it's all part of working on my thesis."

And that, my friends, is yak shaving. (Not that this particular example
happened to me recently or anything.)

Another example of yak shaving might be "I need to ask a question about
our group project. <Person>'s hard to track down. But I know <person>
will be at GSB tonight, so I'll go there too." You see, in this case GSB
isn't socializing or slacking off, it's part of your work -- hanging out
there, you'll be connected to your project via the process of yak shaving!

Now, having been introduced to the term and the concept of yak shaving,
and also having had it pointed out to you that attending GSB is actually
an important part of your research, you are morally bound to come to GSB
tonight and discuss the finer points of yak shaving, and in particular
the subtle distinctions between some forms of "yak shaving" and "flimsy
rationalizations".

------------------------------------------------------------------------

           +-                                                  -+
             girl scout benefit -+-  5:30 pm  -+- 32-G9 lounge
           +-                                                  -+

              For those coming from elsewhere: Building 32 is
               <http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=32>
          Once you are in 32, just take the G-elevator to the 9th
      floor and we will be in the lounge that you will be looking at
                    <http://projects.csail.mit.edu/gsb>


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