Title: I find myself striving for ideal and perfect solutions in parts of my work that might not matter much.  Sometimes it's probably worth the time and detail, but admittedly, a lot of the time it isn't.  It's just more fun and interesting to be "thorough."<p>This happens when working on something new and unfamiliar, often side projects.  In the quest for a "perfect" solution, entire branches of mathematics or programming start to beckon me, and away I go... down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles, Stackoverflow questions, and Github projects.  Even if I do find an adequate solution, it's not good enough until I can understand the class of problem and derive it for myself.<p>This also happens based on principle.  When I encounter a problem that is actually <i>solvable</i> -- though it may not matter much, then I must conquer it entirely.  As an example, for me it is unacceptable that something rated 5.0 with 1 review is ranked higher than a 4.9 with 10 reviews -- and I need to find the solution to this problem, even though it might only be a minor feature and won't matter if there are no reviews to begin with.<p>I call this "conditional" Rabbit Hole Syndrome.  It also sounds an awful lot like the classic interview answer: "My biggest flaw is that I work too hard."  Well it's true, damn it.  These types of trivial things can easily become my "top idea" for days at time.<p>I am now able to admit it:  <i>I spend time working on things that probably won't matter that much, and I enjoy it.</i>  But how do I fix this?  How do I learn to leave well enough alone?  How do I learn the distinction between frivolous research and actually getting shit done?<p>A couple of edits:  After more thought, this is really only an issue with work on my side projects.  I also think it's due to lack of accountability -- I report to myself.  As such, I tend to work on "most interesting first" and avoid schlep.  So I'm wondering: how do you motivate yourself to schlep?
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