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  > ...but that is the definition of bike-shedding (aka law of triviality)
  > A committee won't vote for my nuclear plant because the bike shed is red.
  > The bike shed's color has concrete effects on adoption.
Not exactly.

  > Parkinson observed that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a 
  > nuclear power plant may spend the majority of its time on relatively 
  > unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for
  > the staff bikeshed, while neglecting the design of the power plant itself,
  > which is far more important but also far more difficult to criticize constructively.
  > -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bikeshedding
This part is key here:

  > A reactor is so vastly expensive and complicated that an average person cannot
  > understand it, so one assumes that those who work on it understand it. On the
  > other hand, everyone can visualize a cheap, simple bicycle shed, so planning 
  > one can result in endless discussions because *everyone involved wants to add a
  > touch and show personal contribution*.
  > -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality
  > -- https://books.google.com/books?id=RsMNiobZojIC&pg=PA317


I need some additional hand-holding here if you don't mind, I don't see the difference.

If I were to rephrase those two excerpts:

  > Parkinson observed that a committee whose job is to approve plans for a 
  > [globally distributed relational database] may spend the majority of its time on relatively 
  > unimportant but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what [the name is],
  > while neglecting the design of the [globally distributed relational database] itself,
  > which is far more important but also far more difficult to criticize constructively.

  > A [globally distributed relational database] is so vastly expensive and complicated that an average person cannot
  > understand it, so one assumes that those who work on it understand it. On the
  > other hand, everyone can [read a name], so planning 
  > one can result in endless discussions because *everyone involved wants to add a
  > touch and show personal contribution*.
edit: formatting


Please tell me we're not having a bikeshedding discussion on the meaning of bikeshedding. :-)


We probably are. ;)

It's so meta it hurts.




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