"on the slab"

I really like the way Jennifer Hecht's mind works, as evidenced in this post "on choice and the meaning of life."

When science presents a relationship to the public -- this causes that -- it seems like the tough part was measuring reality, but the toughest part comes first. It is the choice to be concerned with a particular influence that might be making some phenomenon happen. Once you choose which thing you’re going to study, you have made the biggest decision you will make. A writer’s greatest act of editing is in plucking one subject out of the busy universe and placing it on the slab.

What she's really talking about here is the power of attention, and she's right: the biggest choice we can make in any research or inquiry, or maybe even any undertaking at all, is the choice to give our attention to this, not that. (A close second might be the choice to do this, then that.)

So, the time I'm spending on syllabi is not wasted. (But what about the time I wasn't spending on them last week? Mr. Paige's answer works for me: Don't look back...!)

Anyway, I'm glad Jennifer's book Doubt: A History made the cut for A&S. It'll be time well-spent, too.