In an assembly line, if you have a series of connected stations with no buffers, then a problem at any station will block work at all stations. The same is true in life: if you don’t have spare buffer time to reflect or to absorb excess obligation—or better yet, to turn towards spontaneous ideas—you will be unable to react dynamically.
The You Can Afford It tax on Slack quickly approaches 100% if unchecked.
Leonard Adleman, via Michael Nielsen:
I often sit for months and do no productive work that anybody can see, because I don’t feel I have a good enough question to work on. Rather than take on some lesser question, I would prefer to read a mystery novel. The point is, sometimes it’s important to lie fallow for a time waiting for the ‘right question’ to appear, rather than to engage in uninspiring work and miss the important opportunity when in comes.
Concept from Zvi.