[wlug_org] Bike Shed Effect

[Tony Wills]

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Does this sound familiar?

http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#bikeshed
Bike Shed Effect
Social dysfunction syndrome first noted by C. Northcote Parkinson in his 
1957 book Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration, whereby 
securing a board of directors' permission to build a billion-dollar atomic 
power plant is easy, but a proposal to build a cheap bicycle shed will 
founder under the weight of endless discussion. Parkinson noted that, 
because an atomic plant is so vast, so expensive, and so complicated that 
people cannot grasp it, rather than try, they fall back on the assumption 
that somebody else checked the details before it got that far. However, 
everyone thinks he knows all about bicycle sheds, and feels no inhibition 
against debating the proposal's pettiest details without limit.

E.g., most technical mailing lists spend at least half their time drowning 
in redundant posts, trivial quibbles, and offhand opinions of no 
conceivable public interest. Why? Because people can and because it's a way 
for them to demonstrate their involvement with near-zero effort.

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