Sharpen the Tool Before the Work
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Gong yu shan qi shi, bi xian li qi qi says that a craftsman who means to do good work must first sharpen his tools. The model is infrastructure investment: do not be stingy about the good computer, the good software, or the good chair. Gains in tool efficiency compound, because the improvement is collected on every future task, so the time spent sharpening is never lost.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Find the high-frequency cost: locate the tasks you repeat most and the friction they carry. - Buy the sharp tool: invest in the instrument that removes that friction. - Schedule the sharpening: put tool maintenance in the workflow instead of after it.
Anchor fast decisions
The cost of a task is multiplied by how often it is repeated, so an improvement applied to a frequent task pays itself back many times over while a one-off task barely returns the investment. Sharpening front-loads a cost that recurs on every later use, which is why the compounding shows up in throughput rather than in any single task.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikisource.orghttps://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%AB%96%E8%AA%9E/%E8%A1%9E%E9%9D%88%E5%85%AC%E7%AC%AC%E5%8D%81%E4%BA%94verified
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