Fake work is the most productive-feeling procrastination ever invented.

It uses all the same muscles as the real thing. It produces artifacts. It feels identical to progress from the inside. You can lose years in there.

The tooling I kept building was supposed to solve a discipline problem by making the work easier. But the work was never the hard part. Tool acquisition was just my escape hatch.

The bar has to be B+ and out the door. Timeboxed in one sitting.

The standard is useful and true, not the best thing you've ever written. If you aim for A+, you'll never ship.