You've possibly heard the expression "bike shedding". INSERT UNDERSTANDING OF BIKE SHED - REF

As productivity goes, bike shedding is the worst. It's suck a lot of time out of the day, if not weeks. In general it's not useful because it loses focus on the real problem.

But…there's always exceptions. Or so I think.

Most recently, I was tinkering with some code to create a RESTful interface to a JSON store. As I coded, I wanted to add some kind of permissioning system on top of the store (so I could share public URLs to specific parts of my data store).

I posted a tweet asking opinions about HTTP methods I could use and so began a lot of back and forth about methods, resources and ideas. However, eventually someone suggested all of these problems had been solved with GraphQL and that the entire thread of conversation was bike shedding.

Yes and no. Sure, the problem I was trying to solve had definitely been solved in other areas of technology. Perhaps GraphQL had the answers, but I didn't know the technology at all to know myself.

More importantly, through this bike shedding process, I was able to play with my code, experiment with suggestions and think through design decisions. The process of bike shedding in this particular instance was helpful.

Importantly though, I was experimenting, I was tinkering. I had time on my side and I was willing to spend it if I learnt sometime (even if I learnt that something was wrong).

Bike shedding is often used in a way to dismiss (or even stop) potentially wasteful discussion. But sometimes, it's okay. Let yourself be the judge.

So, as a productivity tip, maybe sometimes let yourself bike shed. Allow yourself some time to kick the tires on an idea, in the same way that being bored can lead to creativity - you don't need to be productive all the time.

Drafts may be incomplete or entirely abandoned, so please forgive me. If you find an issue with a draft, or would like to see me write about something specifically, please try raising an issue.