the.com/bikeshedding
the committee approves a nuclear reactor in five minutes but argues an hour over the parking-lot bike shed color.
means spending disproportionate time debating trivial, easy-to-picture details while the complex, important decision gets rubber-stamped.
from coined from c. northcote parkinson's 1957 parable: a committee reviewing a nuclear plant waves it through instantly, since it's too complex to question, then spends ages on the bike shed because everyone has an opinion on paint.
parkinson's lawrelated to his 'work expands to fill time' principle
other namealso called the law of triviality
tech culturebecame a staple word in software mailing lists
for instance
freebsd mailing lists — the term spread widely through devs debating trivial patches for years
github pr comments — tabs vs spaces threads outlasting actual bug fixes
corporate rebrand meetings — logo color debated longer than the entire budget