5 ms·

The Original Bike Shed Email

99 points by gthank 16y ago

sofuture 16y ago
This is ironic, right? (I jest, but in-depth meta-analysis of community remains solidly, eternally and earnestly hilarious.)
portman 16y ago
Is there an inside joke here? Because I'm quite certain that Parkinson's bike shed allegory was commonly used among software development teams well before 1999.
- CapitalistCartr 16y ago
  As the article (email) says, it's from a book printed in the 1960s.
  - portman 16y ago
    Yes, it's an allegory related by Cyril Parkinson, originally in his lectures, and then eventually in his eponymous book. I'm familiar with it. My question is: why is the subject of this thread "The Original Bike Shed Email", when there were undoubtedly lots of Bike Shed emails prior to October 1999?
    - gthank 16y ago
      Maybe there were, but I haven't found them. Maybe the title should be "The Earliest Bike Shed Email I've Seen". Also, it gives a pretty thorough explanation of the history behind it, something left out by most references I've seen.
    - eitally 16y ago
      Because this was the "Original Bike Shed Email" that gave rise to, oh, http://www.sheddingbikes.com http://www.sheddingbikes.com. I think this was posted more in response to Zed's popularity now than because of Parkinson's idea as demonstrated on the FreeBSD discussion.
      - gthank 16y ago
        Actually, I posted it because somebody linked it earlier today in a comment and it was the best (and earliest) explanation of the Bike Shed phenomena (in a software context) I'd seen.
        eitally 16y ago
        Gotcha. I must have been influenced after having just read the "why I booted python from Mongrel2" article. :)
        gthank 16y ago
        I could have sworn that was the submission where I found the comment, but I couldn't find it again for my reply, so who knows?
pquerna 16y ago
A related, and fun implementation of the Bikeshed email: http://blue.bikeshed.com/ http://yellow.bikeshed.com/ http://red.bikeshed.com/ http://gainsboro.bikeshed.com/ Lots more colors to choose from, my favorite is Blue, because blue is the best.
- mapleoin 16y ago
  It even supports hex colors. And this is much better than blue: http://ff3323.bikeshed.com/ http://ff3323.bikeshed.com/
  - mey 16y ago
    http://ff00ff.bikeshed.com/ http://ff00ff.bikeshed.com/
  - cycojesus 16y ago
    as a new father I shouldn't but I find http://baddad.bikeshed.com/ http://baddad.bikeshed.com/ relaxing.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
ced 16y ago
Your email is about to be sent to several hundred thousand people, who will have to spend at least 10 seconds reading it before they can decide if it is interesting. At least two man-weeks will be spent reading your email. Many of the recipients will have to pay to download your email. I wish HN had this warning next to the "add comment" button. It would improve my posts.
- jrockway 16y ago
  On HN, it's more like: Your message is about to be sent to several hundred thousand very bored people that have nothing better to do. At least two man-weeks worth of time will be spent reading your message instead of looking at lolcats. It's fun to think everyone is participating because they value everyone else's commentary, but HN is really just a bunch of talkative people mentally in between other tasks.
marcinw 16y ago
I love examples like the Bike Shed.. Another good one is the "Chicken and the Pig" story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig
- alanh 16y ago
  Mine is Shaving the Yak. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/dont_shave_t...
yan 16y ago
Poul-Henning Kamp is an incredible FreeBSD hacker, started the varnish project, and was a fantastic person to follow when I subscribed to the freebsd-* mailing lists. He's one of my hacker superstars.
SoftwareMaven 16y ago
The bikeshed email (I knew of it before I knew of Parkinson's work) was a defining moment for me in software development. I refer to it often. It was even the subject of my longest blog post: http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/2010/03/why-you-care-about-color-of-bike-shed.html http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/2010/03/why-you-care-abo....
uxp 16y ago
It is interesting that this email came up today on HN, along side the article from Zed Shaw on how he is dropping the Python requirement from Mongrel2 and the debate it has sparked. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1712035 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1712035
bl4k 16y ago
The most common bikeshed problem with web development is with design and user interface. We nicknamed this the 'cornflower blue' problem (fight club reference). Everybody thinks they know what good UI and design is, and they will certainly let you know what they think is right. I am sure many of you have had the exact same problem, and have also resorted to hiding a new project from various staff members just to prevent the project from becoming a quagmire.
- _sh 16y ago
  My heart goes out to all passionate, dedicated graphic designers. Who would do this job? Not I, for all the tea in China. Not only does everyone think they know what good design is, and let you know what they think is right, they'll be looking at you thinking 'what do we need you for? why are we wasting money on you?' You need to first justify your existence, then justify your abilities to people who know better anyway. Who needs this grief?
ciupicri 16y ago
So this is why the sleep[1] function from Python accepts floating point numbers: to avoid any future bike shedding. [1] http://docs.python.org/library/time.html#time.sleep http://docs.python.org/library/time.html#time.sleep

99 points by gthank 16y ago

This is ironic, right? (I jest, but in-depth meta-analysis of community remains solidly, eternally and earnestly hilarious.)

portman 16y ago

Is there an inside joke here? Because I'm quite certain that Parkinson's bike shed allegory was commonly used among software development teams well before 1999.

CapitalistCartr 16y ago
As the article (email) says, it's from a book printed in the 1960s.
- portman 16y ago
  Yes, it's an allegory related by Cyril Parkinson, originally in his lectures, and then eventually in his eponymous book. I'm familiar with it. My question is: why is the subject of this thread "The Original Bike Shed Email", when there were undoubtedly lots of Bike Shed emails prior to October 1999?
  - gthank 16y ago
    Maybe there were, but I haven't found them. Maybe the title should be "The Earliest Bike Shed Email I've Seen". Also, it gives a pretty thorough explanation of the history behind it, something left out by most references I've seen.
  - eitally 16y ago
    Because this was the "Original Bike Shed Email" that gave rise to, oh, http://www.sheddingbikes.com http://www.sheddingbikes.com. I think this was posted more in response to Zed's popularity now than because of Parkinson's idea as demonstrated on the FreeBSD discussion.
    - gthank 16y ago
      Actually, I posted it because somebody linked it earlier today in a comment and it was the best (and earliest) explanation of the Bike Shed phenomena (in a software context) I'd seen.
      - eitally 16y ago
        Gotcha. I must have been influenced after having just read the "why I booted python from Mongrel2" article. :)
        gthank 16y ago
        I could have sworn that was the submission where I found the comment, but I couldn't find it again for my reply, so who knows?

pquerna 16y ago

A related, and fun implementation of the Bikeshed email: http://blue.bikeshed.com/ http://yellow.bikeshed.com/ http://red.bikeshed.com/ http://gainsboro.bikeshed.com/ Lots more colors to choose from, my favorite is Blue, because blue is the best.

mapleoin 16y ago
It even supports hex colors. And this is much better than blue: http://ff3323.bikeshed.com/ http://ff3323.bikeshed.com/
- mey 16y ago
  http://ff00ff.bikeshed.com/ http://ff00ff.bikeshed.com/
- cycojesus 16y ago
  as a new father I shouldn't but I find http://baddad.bikeshed.com/ http://baddad.bikeshed.com/ relaxing.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

ced 16y ago

Your email is about to be sent to several hundred thousand people, who will have to spend at least 10 seconds reading it before they can decide if it is interesting. At least two man-weeks will be spent reading your email. Many of the recipients will have to pay to download your email. I wish HN had this warning next to the "add comment" button. It would improve my posts.

jrockway 16y ago
On HN, it's more like: Your message is about to be sent to several hundred thousand very bored people that have nothing better to do. At least two man-weeks worth of time will be spent reading your message instead of looking at lolcats. It's fun to think everyone is participating because they value everyone else's commentary, but HN is really just a bunch of talkative people mentally in between other tasks.

marcinw 16y ago

I love examples like the Bike Shed.. Another good one is the "Chicken and the Pig" story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig

alanh 16y ago
Mine is Shaving the Yak. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/dont_shave_t...

yan 16y ago

Poul-Henning Kamp is an incredible FreeBSD hacker, started the varnish project, and was a fantastic person to follow when I subscribed to the freebsd-* mailing lists. He's one of my hacker superstars.

SoftwareMaven 16y ago

The bikeshed email (I knew of it before I knew of Parkinson's work) was a defining moment for me in software development. I refer to it often. It was even the subject of my longest blog post: http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/2010/03/why-you-care-about-color-of-bike-shed.html http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/2010/03/why-you-care-abo....

uxp 16y ago

It is interesting that this email came up today on HN, along side the article from Zed Shaw on how he is dropping the Python requirement from Mongrel2 and the debate it has sparked. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1712035 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1712035

bl4k 16y ago

The most common bikeshed problem with web development is with design and user interface. We nicknamed this the 'cornflower blue' problem (fight club reference). Everybody thinks they know what good UI and design is, and they will certainly let you know what they think is right. I am sure many of you have had the exact same problem, and have also resorted to hiding a new project from various staff members just to prevent the project from becoming a quagmire.

_sh 16y ago
My heart goes out to all passionate, dedicated graphic designers. Who would do this job? Not I, for all the tea in China. Not only does everyone think they know what good design is, and let you know what they think is right, they'll be looking at you thinking 'what do we need you for? why are we wasting money on you?' You need to first justify your existence, then justify your abilities to people who know better anyway. Who needs this grief?

ciupicri 16y ago

So this is why the sleep[1] function from Python accepts floating point numbers: to avoid any future bike shedding. [1] http://docs.python.org/library/time.html#time.sleep http://docs.python.org/library/time.html#time.sleep