yak shaving

English

Etymology

Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993-8)[1] after viewing[2] a 1991 episode of The Ren and Stimpy Show featuring "Yak Shaving Day," a Christmas-like Holiday where participants hang diapers instead of stockings, stuff rubber boots with coleslaw, and watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.

Noun

yak shaving (uncountable)

  1. Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a larger problem.
    I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off.

See also

References
  1. Brown, Jeremy (2000-02-11), “Yak Shaving”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎, retrieved 2014-02-02
  2. Vieri, Carlin (2008-06-05), “Talk:yak shaving”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎ comment from Vieri.
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