Wasted Time And Effort – A Story

Let me tell you a story. It starts sometime last year and ends last night at 1 am. I built a wellness blog for a class project using the MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) tech stack. The noteworthy thing about the project is that I wrote all the backend logic for an administrative dashboard. Unfortunately, I wasn’t happy with the look and feel of the site, so I didn’t deploy it to the web.

So, last night I am designing my portfolio site and I realize my portfolio could use more examples of backend experience. Queue that site! I take it off the shelf, dust it off, add a couple frog pictures and deploy it to the web. Perfect right? Nope. Not even a little.

Unfortunately, the file storage system I built doesn’t play well with Heroku, which means, if you login and add a post, a picture won’t show up. I spent some time trying to make it work and then I spent some time trying to resurrect a previous implementation of storing images in MongoDB.

I finally realize how much time I had wasted at 1 am. Not only is there no progress on the file storage issue, but now I am going to be a zombie the next day. Complete failure right? Nope. Not even a little.

I Got More Out of Failing…

Not gonna lie, I was feeling frustrated that I had wasted valuable time. I took time away from my wife and kid. I traded time for nothing tangible. But then I realized, I was just facing the Sunken Cost Fallacy. What is this you ask? According to The Decision Lab,

The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to 
follow through on an endeavor if we have already 
invested time, effort, or money into it, whether 
or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.

If you check out the linked article, you’ll basically learn that people have a hard time calling it quits when they should because of their emotions. This is exactly what I experienced. My frustration and guilt for wasting time kept me coding late into the night.

Okay You Figured Out Why You Wasted Your Time, Why Does That Matter?

The thing is, I ultimately didn’t waste my time. I realized, my experience was just practice with overcoming the Sunken Cost Fallacy. I’m sure I will face this issue in the tech field. Acknowledging its existence and reflecting on ways of avoiding it now, will save me time later. For instance, the next time I’m coding just to justify all the time I have wasted, I am gonna take a step back and consider my feelings.

Conclusion

I could have chalked last night up as a failure. I didn’t and I ultimately feel better for overcoming it. I used the power of reflection and changing my point of view to grow as a person and developer. I analyzed a bothersome situation and distilled the positives from it. I encourage you to do the same!

– The Coding Hotdog