Rework jason fried

Don't be a hero 
 
A lot of times it's better to be a quitter than a hero. 
 
For example, let's say you think a task can be done in two hours. But four hours 
into it, you're still only a quarter of the way done. The natural instinct is to think, "But I 
can't give up now, I've already spent four hours on this!" 
 
So you go into hero mode. You're determined to make it work (and slightly 
embarrassed that it isn't already working). You grab your cape and shut yourself off from 
the world. 
 
And sometimes that kind of sheer effort overload works. But is it worth it? 
Probably not. The task was worth it when you thought it would cost two hours, not 
sixteen. In those sixteen hours, you could have gotten a bunch of other things done. Plus, 
you cut yourself off from feedback, which can lead you even further down the wrong 
path. Even heroes need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes--someone else to give them a 
reality check. 
 
We've experienced this problem firsthand. So we decided that if anything takes 

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one of us longer than two weeks, we've got to bring other people in to take a look. They 
might not do any work on the task, but at least they can review it quickly and give their 
two cents. Sometimes an obvious solution is staring you right in the face, but you can't 
even see it. 
 
Keep in mind that the obvious solution might very well be quitting. People 
automatically associate quitting with failure, but sometimes that's exactly what you 
should do. If you already spent too much time on something that wasn't worth it, walk 
away. You can't get that time back. The worst thing you can do now is waste even more 
time.  
 
 
 
 
 
Go to sleep 
 
Forgoing sleep is a bad idea. Sure, you get those extra hours right now, but you 

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pay in spades later: You destroy your creativity, morale, and attitude. 
 
Once in a while, you can pull an all-nighter if you fully understand the 
consequences. Just don't make it a habit. If it becomes a constant, the costs start to 
mount:Stubbornness: When you're really tired, it always seems easier to plow down 
whatever bad path you happen to be on instead of reconsidering the route. The finish line 
is a constant mirage and you wind up walking in the desert way too long. Lack of 
creativity: Creativity is one of the first things to go when you lose sleep. What 
distinguishes people who are ten times more effective than the norm is not that they work 
ten times as hard; it's that they use their creativity to come up with solutions that require 
one-tenth of the effort. Without sleep, you stop coming up with those one-tenth solutions.