The Allegory of the Kitchen
I love cooking, and get myself little gadgets and tools for the kitchen more often than I should, because having the right tool for the job makes things so much more pleasant and makes me more effective.
Really, it’s not so much the cooking I love; it’s really all about hosting little dinner parties, and making something special to bring over to friends' places when we get together.
Now, there's one tool I don't have, because the kitchen doesn't have a spot for it: a dishwasher. Because I really don't like doing dishes* they often pile up, filling the sink and taking over a bunch of the surrounding counter space.
Trying to host a successful dinner party or make a cake to bring to a birthday get-together when I'm surrounded by a pile of dirty dishes is… well, pretty frustrating. So, I instead spend an hour washing the dishes, cutting deeply into the time I have to do the thing that I really want to do — and that people are expecting me to do.
This means I have to half-ass my cake. I'm disappointed in myself, and while friends won't outright say so, I'm sure they didn't love it either.
Probably I just need a better cake pan, right?
* I actually like doing the dishes, because I can stare out the window and think on things while I wash them. But that’s not the moral of the story here.