That's a great and underappreciated point. I'm really fond of my endless tinkering in Emacs, to optimize and automate away all kinds of repetition and tedium. But when I do a honest accounting I realize that, even though my newest tweak that took 30 minutes to make will probably save me a hundred hours in the long run, I'll blow more than a hundred hours over the next month procrastinating on HN because of anxiety about starting tasks. Like I'm doing right now - I was supposed to take an hour off for some personal "me and my thoughts time" an hour ago. But HN is just more immediately gratifying.
It's true for me and I guess for many (most?) programmers: the limiting factor is inadequate capacity to control my own emotional state.
It's true for me and I guess for many (most?) programmers: the limiting factor is inadequate capacity to control my own emotional state.