Yak Shaving
A chain of seemingly necessary side tasks that delays the original task.
Plain English
You keep fixing prerequisites and never reach the work you started.
In context
Yak shaving happens when each dependency reveals another dependency until the original goal is far away.
Example
“I only wanted to update the test but ended up yak shaving the build system.”
When you'll hear this
- debugging
- maintenance
- setup
Common misunderstanding
It does not mean every prerequisite is wasteful; it describes the expanding chain.
Also known as
shaving the yak
Commonly used by
Related terms
Updated: 2026-08-25
