Stop perfecting your config

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Style Pass

2024-09-04 21:30:07

I suggest following ThePrimeagen’s advice on approaching your configuration. He recommends revisiting your configuration only once every couple of months, which I think is a very healthy and sustainable approach. In the meantime, take a mental note of the things that are annoying or slowing you down so that you can address them when the time to overhaul comes.

While I agree whole heartedly with the main argument of this article, I'll present an alternative and useful mental model: think like a carpenter. Build jigs to serve your current work.

A carpenter will build a jig to automate a repetitive or precise task, but he'll make it 80% good, intentionally temporary, and perhaps throw it away at the end. If he finds himself building that jig over and over, he may make a more flexible and permanent version.

The slough of distraction is when you are trying to "perfect your config" for all situations, all languages, for problems you currently aren't solving.