[Sebb767]

There's definitely a lesson in prioritization in there, as these task are mostly not dependent on each other. Hal already had the light bulb in his hand when he noticed the loose shelf and he already had the tools to fix the shelf when noticing the squealing. The only dependency in there was fixing the car to get WD40 and fix the drawer.

From a business perspective, he could have finished the first two tasks before going to the next one - the total time to completion would be the same, but the business would have had 2/4 tasks completed and therefore a better product earlier.

The fact that this is an article written by a software engineer that completely ignores the missing dependencies bears some irony :-)

[lloeki]

> The fact that this is an article written by a software engineer that completely ignores the missing dependencies bears some irony :-)

I don't think this is the case as the author mentions he assumes Hal follows the boyscout rule:

> at each step of the process leave the camp site a little bit nicer than it was when arriving

Which is the only way to get tech debt under control when tech debt is not a dedicated project (and thus receives no allocation)

It kind of punts on the dependency thing, the idea being that if you notice some small fixable thing then you might as well do it right now.

Which in turn makes the parallel with tech debt all the more on point, the joke being not so much about a singular chain of issues but about the household being absolutely drowned under a gajillion independent issues that keep making everything demoralisingly slow.

[anenefan]

Strangely I'd refer to the situation described as spreading oneself too thin (on jobs that could wait but need to be done) ... or if working for yourself, and the light that needed replacing, was in fact something they knew to be very unpleasant or tedious, avoidance therapy.

I think it would closer reflect technical debt if when Hal went to change the light he found the shade needed cleaning badly, he wipes it down with a damp cloth, the top of it is filthy, but as he wipes he can bits of the shade are coming off in the wet rag, then he gets a mild shock when he wipes the cord hanging from the ceiling. It obviously no longer meets the safety code as it is unsafe and decides since he needs to hold onto it while replacing the shade, it needs replacing and needs to ensure the power is off first ... before he gets the fortuitous spare cord he realises the fact he got a shock while the light was supposed to be off means the switch needs to be inspected, and resolve the dilemma. In the mean time Lois arrives and realises the shade is see though in places and mentions it needs to be replaced why aren't they doing that. Hal who's pulling the switch cover off carefully exclaims what does it look like I'm doing.

[m463]

https://wondermark.com/464/

[psnehanshu]

Broken SSL

[m463]

http://wondermark.com/464/

:)

[djbusby]

I thought he was holding the burnt out bulb.