Give Me Six Hours to Chop Down a Tree and I will Spend the First Five Sleeping

The famous quote by Abraham Lincoln reads:

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Other version reads:

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my axe.

This code simply meant that in doing any task, its preparation is more important. If you participate in a robotics competition, you should spend some time reading the rules first. You don't go straight into building the robot and then found out that you violate the rules; then you have to build the robot all over again.

A more biblical example would be the magi who went to look for Jesus when He was born. They went around following the star but did not read the Scriptures. It was only when they arrived in Jerusalem Herod inquired the chief priests and scribes regarding the place of Christ birth. The magi then head to Bethlehem and the star appeared again.

So what Abraham Lincoln was saying is that you don’t start by chopping the tree and then realize that your axe is blunt and then you sharpen your axe.

But I still find his quote rather stupid. If I were given 6 hours to chop a tree, why must I use all 6 hours to chop the tree? I’ll spend 5 hours sleeping, 40 minutes to sharpen my axe, and then 20 minutes to chop the tree.

Leon then asked me why don’t I chop the tree first and then spend 5 hours sleeping in case 1 hour wasn’t sufficient. Good question. Well, I guess that’s my nature of procrastinating. Doing it the last hour also gives me the sense of urgency that might boost me to sharpen faster, chop harder and faster. People tend to laze around if it’s the first hour anyway.