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That used to confuse me too. I've come to the conclusion that the reason people focus on things that don't ultimately matter is because it's easy. Anyone can
by pmorici 15y ago
That used to confuse me too. I've come to the conclusion that the reason people focus on things that don't ultimately matter is because it's easy. Anyone can see that someone isn't wearing a suit, works odd hours, doesn't file their TPS reports in triplicate, etc...
On the other hand big problems are hard to solve. People frequently bemoan the glut of poorly skilled individuals who claim to have software engineering skills. One would assume that that there could be a similar ratio of crap people in other fields, management, for example.
In short; managers focus on these things to an extreme because they are bad at their job and policing people's wardrobe is the fizz buzz of the management world.
- mbreese 15y agoI don't think it's that the trivial problems are easy, but rather they don't understand the hard ones. Everyone has an opinion on the color to paint a bike shed [1], but technical problems are much tougher to conceptionally deal with. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality Edit: fixed link - thanks
- jacques_chester 15y agoYou have a slight typo in your link, it should be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality
- SoftwarePatent 15y agoYou're describing bikeshedding http://bikeshed.org/ http://bikeshed.org/ I love finding out there is a single word for something it would take an entire paragraph to describe.
- pestaa 15y agoI'd love it even more if I could use the word without explaining it to every person I talk to. I mean these laws should be taught at school.
- pavel_lishin 15y agoEvery so often I scan through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws for a reminder.
- mattdeboard 15y agoSounds like we need a word to describe the occasion of finding a single word for something that would otherwise take an entire paragraph to describe.
- djackson 15y agosuccinct
- perfunctory 15y ago> I've come to the conclusion that the reason people focus on things that don't ultimately matter is because it's easy. Absolutely.