"yak shaving" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993–1998) after viewing a segment at the end of a 1991 episode of The Ren and Stimpy Show. The segment featured “Yak Shaving Day,” a Christmas-like Holiday where participants hang diapers instead of stockings, stuff rubber boots with coleslaw, and watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "yak shaving (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem."
      ],
      "id": "en-yak_shaving-en-noun-S9hUPkf~",
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just yak shaving, and got no work done on the car itself."
        },
        {
          "text": "For quotations using this term, see Citations:yak shaving."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task."
      ],
      "id": "en-yak_shaving-en-noun-T06A3dNc",
      "links": [
        [
          "useful",
          "useful"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "42 58",
          "word": "bikeshedding"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "42 58",
          "word": "when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-yak shaving.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8c/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav.mp3",
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      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "John Kricfalusi",
    "The Ren & Stimpy Show",
    "Vincent Waller"
  ],
  "word": "yak shaving"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993–1998) after viewing a segment at the end of a 1991 episode of The Ren and Stimpy Show. The segment featured “Yak Shaving Day,” a Christmas-like Holiday where participants hang diapers instead of stockings, stuff rubber boots with coleslaw, and watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "yak shaving (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "bikeshedding"
    },
    {
      "word": "when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just yak shaving, and got no work done on the car itself."
        },
        {
          "text": "For quotations using this term, see Citations:yak shaving."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "useful",
          "useful"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-yak shaving.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8c/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8c/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Wodencafe-yak_shaving.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "John Kricfalusi",
    "The Ren & Stimpy Show",
    "Vincent Waller"
  ],
  "word": "yak shaving"
}