Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 13:50:55 -0700 From: Brooks Davis <brooks@one-eyed-alien.net> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com> Cc: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no>, Michael Lucas <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org>, Alexander Langer <alex@big.endian.de>, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Bikesheds Message-ID: <20000717135055.B23145@orion.ac.hmc.edu> In-Reply-To: <7036.963866191@localhost>; from jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com on Mon, Jul 17, 2000 at 01:36:31PM -0700 References: <xzphf9oy1ji.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <7036.963866191@localhost>
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On Mon, Jul 17, 2000 at 01:36:31PM -0700, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > Bzzt, wrong, but thanks for playing. > > Actually, as someone who remembers phk's original discussion (and the > citation of some Danish aphorism from which it springs), this is wrong > too. :-) Nobody seems to be remember it right so I dug it up in the archives. Here's the URL to the archives (didn't these used to be shorter?): http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=506636+517178+/usr/local/www/db/text/1999/freebsd-hackers/19991003.freebsd-hackers Here's the relavent part of PHK's message for the lazy: > "What is it about this bike shed ?" Some of you have asked me. > > It's a long story, or rather it's an old story, but it is quite > short actually. C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a book in the early > 1960'ies, called "Parkinson's Law", which contains a lot of insight > into the dynamics of management. > > [snip a bit of commentary on the book] > > Parkinson shows how you can go in to the board of directors and > get approval for building a multi-million or even billion dollar > atomic power plant, but if you want to build a bike shed you will > be tangled up in endless discussions. > > Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic plant is so vast, > so expensive and so complicated that people cannot grasp it, and > rather than try, they fall back on the assumption that somebody > else checked all the details before it got this far. Richard P. > Feynmann gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the point, > examples relating to Los Alamos in his books. > > A bike shed on the other hand. Anyone can build one of those over > a weekend, and still have time to watch the game on TV. So no > matter how well prepared, no matter how reasonable you are with > your proposal, somebody will seize the chance to show that he is > doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is *here*. > > In Denmark we call it "setting your fingerprint". It is about > personal pride and prestige, it is about being able to point > somewhere and say "There! *I* did that." It is a strong trait in > politicians, but present in most people given the chance. Just > think about footsteps in wet cement. -- Brooks -- Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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