The over-engineering watch

Here's the question I keep asking myself before I build anything: am I spending more time designing the system than actually doing the work? That's the watch. Not a rule against building—a check on why I'm building.

Sometimes sharpening the axe is exactly right, and all the upstream work pays off, and it feels great when it does. Other times the building is the avoidance—the sharpening quietly becomes the thing instead of the work. Same motion, two different meanings.

Learn to tell which one you're in.