bike - Parkinsons Law of Triviality

Photograph by Bekathwiaon Flickr.
Parkinson s Law of Triviality (also known as the bicycle shed example, and by the expression colour of the bikeshed) is C. Even those with strong opinions often withhold them for fear of being shown to be insufficiently informed.
A nuclear reactor is used as example because it is so vastly expensive and complicated that average people cannot understand it, so they assume that those working on it understand it. While discussing the bikeshed, debate emerges over whether the best choice of roofing is aluminium, asbestos, or galvanized iron, rather than whether the shed is a good idea or not. The concept was restated by a widely-quoted and often-reprinted 1999 email post by Poul-Henning Kamp to the FreeBSD development mailing list titled A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass. Despite colour not featuring as an argument in Parkinson s original example, Parkinson s basic concept was presented, and used to illustrate software development problems.
Northcote Parkinson s 1957 argument that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. The concept is presented in C. Parkinson dramatizes his Law of Triviality with a committee s deliberations on a nuclear power plant, contrasting it to deliberation on a bicycle shed.
Northcote Parkinson s spoof of management, Parkinson s Law.
