“We love to debate minutiae.”
Ramit Sethi
I am guilty as charged. The quote was in reference to how people argue about details in fitness or finances that are more detailed than is useful to them. We do this with respect to a lot of things. I have argued points in projects and security that weren’t worth the time we devoted to the discussion.
When I think about the impact of these debates beyond just the time wasted, I have concluded that most of them weren’t worth it. Hurt feelings, paralysis caused by uncertainty, and needless complications wasting even more time and money are some resulting fallout when we argue over details that aren’t that important.
The key takeaway here is considering whether it’s worth it to go into the minutiae. For instance, I was putting a slide together and almost populated a bullet with a qualifier for a known exception. If we had been in a meeting and that bullet came up, I would be tempted to want to discuss the exceptions. But that’s just it: they are exceptions. And if those exceptions don’t warrant significant specialized treatment, then it’s hard to justify that the discussion is worth it.
There are obviously some discussions that are worth it. The key is to only launch into those discussions that are necessary and worth the cost. A side effect of restraining ourselves is that if we are only known to argue when the risk/cost warrants such discussions, what we say will be taken with more credibility.