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I recently heard the age old term of “Axe Sharpening” used to describe software configuration and quality of life optimizations and I’ve realize that the term describes my obsession perfectly.
After I graduated from College at UCSD, I had a period of time before I started Working at Amazon where I had what felt like limitless time to tinker and enjoy my life. During this period of time, I rebuilt my website (see my First Blog Post), started diving into the world of Linux, Neovim, and started using a Window Manager. This is also when I started using Alfred Workflows (see my YouTube Video) to further optimize my workflow. I started personalizing my computer in new and interesting ways that primarily focused on adding Vim bindings. I found Vimium C for Arc Browser that allows me to quickly navigate between pages and follow links with Vim like keybindings. Sharpening my axe (customizing my computer) helped me feel more comfortable with coding and over time I feel like my computer is now an extension of myself.
This customization was very important and I still benefit from many of the optimizations that I made, but after working for a few years as an engineer, I am realizing that at the beginning of my career I was actually too busy sharpening my axes to cut down any trees. And now, as I am transitioning to a mid level engineer I’ve finally chopped down my fair share of trees and I’m finally ready to get back into sharpening my axes but more importantly, I’m ready to start learning new techniques to chop down more trees.