Right now an entire mobile app launch is paused because I am waiting on a cryptographic signature that doesn't exist yet. I used to find this infuriating. Now I build the next thing that doesn't need it.
Right now an entire mobile app launch is paused because I am waiting on a cryptographic signature that doesn't exist yet. The keystore has to generate a fingerprint before I can register a maps key before the build can compile before anyone can use the app to find a gas station. Everything downstream of a file that hasn't been created yet.
I used to find this kind of dependency infuriating — the sense that my effort and the actual bottleneck have nothing to do with each other. I could work sixteen hours today and it would not move the fingerprint any faster. Some things are not solved by intensity.
What I do instead now is build the next thing that doesn't need it. Liability language. Sponsor outreach. The part of the app that has nothing to do with the part that's stuck. It's not patience, exactly — I don't think I have patience. It's just that I've finally learned the difference between a blocker and an excuse, and most days I can tell which one I'm looking at.