"Today I read the statement, "It's hard to achieve agility with efficiency", and wondered, "is that a reasonable objective?" - Thoughts?" - @DocOnDev

I've given this a lot of thought in an unlikely context: home maintenance.

I have two young kids, so it's not realistic that I'll get an uninterrupted daylight hour on the weekend.  Yet, there is a pile of stuff I want to get done.  If I apply a slice and dice mentality, I can accomplish most things, but I'm always grossly inefficient.  For instance, this weekend I wanted to hang lights.  It's annoyingly inefficient to pack and unpack the ladder multiple times, yet I have to do it, because I can't be sure I'll be able to get back to it.  Also I'd like to test-drive my lights (since my "normal" feedback loop might be days long).  If I hang "the most valuable" section, I need a very long extension cord.  To reach those lights, I'll also have to leave this cord in an obvious and "ugly" place.

So my observations are that that agile/incremental/verifiable work requires repeatable setup/teardown and more raw materials.  Compared to performing the same work over a continuous uninterrupted block of time, it's very inefficient.  Given my goals:  Maximize time with my kids, hang my own lights, save money, avoid rework, don't waste time; something has to give.  I'll give up efficiency, it's the least important of my goals.