A man is walking through the woods and comes across a lumberjack trying to cut down a tree with a blunt axe. The lumberjack is obviously not successful, so the man asks him
“Why don’t you sharpen your axe?”
The lumberjack replies, saying that he would love to, but he doesn’t have the time. He explains that he needs to cut down all these trees by the end of the day.
The man explains that if he just set aside some time to sharpen his axe, he would actually be able to work faster and accomplish his goal. The lumberjack dismisses him and continues chopping, so the man wishes him well and continues walking through the woods.
Later, he comes across another lumberjack surrounded by untouched trees, relentlessly sharpening his axe. The man can see that the axe is clearly sharp enough, yet the lumberjack continues. The man asks
“Isn’t that sharp enough?”
and the lumberjack replies, saying that he can’t afford inefficiency, and that his axe needs to be perfect.
I first encountered this story here.