Current Events > What are some examples of "bike shedding" that irk you a little bit?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Basically, stuff in your industry/profession/hobby/life that isn't very important or complicated, but because it is simple people fixate on it. Particularly when people *outside* of your profession/hobby think its a big deal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality

First one that came to mind for me is steak, and how to cook it. I'm not a chef but I do really like to cook, and something I've noticed is the sheer volume of cooking videos on how to cook a steak. And any time you're among a group of guys at a barbeque there's literally arguments about the optimal way to cook a steak. Guys insist they have the ultimate method and will argue with literal chefs over this like it's a profound cooking art.

Another example: I work out and people starting out seem to wory a fuckton about supplements and optimising their form and never any time actually trying hard for any significant amount of time.

In my job (software development), the prevailing problem is that people with no engineering proficiency spend all their time worrying about the aesthetics of the thingand never any time on how it actually functions. "Should the button be blue or green", and not "should we have the button".

What does this have to do with bicycles?

rexcrk posted...

What does this have to do with bicycles?

The concept was first presented as a corollary of his broader "Parkinson's law" spoof of management. He dramatizes this "law of triviality" with the example of a committee's deliberations on an atomic reactor, contrasting it to deliberations on a bicycle shed. As he put it: "The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved." A reactor is so vastly expensive and complicated that an average person cannot understand it (see ambiguity aversion), so one assumes that those who work on it understand it. However, everyone can visualize a cheap, simple bicycle shed, so planning one can result in endless discussions because everyone involved wants to implement their own proposal and demonstrate personal contribution.[4]
After a suggestion of building something new for the community, like a bike shed, problems arise when everyone involved argues about the details. This is a metaphor indicating that it is not necessary to argue about every little feature based simply on having the knowledge to do so. Some people have commented that the amount of noise generated by a change is inversely proportional to the complexity of the change.[3]

I cant speak for the others but the correct way to cook steak is medium rare. 4 min on one side, 2 on the other.

I think the most common is something like this (also software engineering):

"Here is big problem A we have to fix ASAP"
"Okay, to we have solution for that?"
"What about this? This would solve this big Problem A"
"Okay, but this would not solve minor problem B."
"Did anyone encounter minor problem B so far?"
"Not yet. Let's wait a bit to see if minor problem B gets relevant in the future before we decide on a solution of big problem A"

Every fucking time.

"Okay, they say they want to do this, but are not able to do it. But what if they also wanted to do that? We currently have no solution for that, so lets just ignore this."

Karovorak posted...

I think the most common is something like this (also software engineering):

"Here is big problem A we have to fix ASAP"
"Okay, to we have solution for that?"
"What about this? This would solve this big Problem A"
"Okay, but this would not solve minor problem B."
"Did anyone encounter minor problem B so far?"
"Not yet. Let's wait a bit to see if minor problem B gets relevant in the future before we decide on a solution of big problem A"

Every fucking time.

"Okay, they say they want to do this, but are not able to do it. But what if they also wanted to do that? We currently have no solution for that, so lets just ignore this."

Acti-Blizz meanwhile takes the opposite approach. Theyll address something minor and irrelevant while ignoring huge issues. Sometimes for years.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Acti-Blizz meanwhile takes the opposite approach. Theyll address something minor and irrelevant while ignoring huge issues. Sometimes for years.

I mean, that's actually what I'm talking about.

Pushing off big problems, because they care more about the fix of tiny ones.

Or more like "if we can only fix it to 90% and not to 100%, why even bother".

Written feedback in primary schools. Absolutely fucking useless 90% of the time. All the research suggests that its inefficient at best and completely ineffective at worst and yet most schools
expect teachers to spend several hours a week doing it.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


i'm guessing its karen parents flipping out if they dont get a written report for every time their little angel did a sum that week

On another note:

For my old job, I was managing the whole data process for the ALM department in a bank.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_and_liability_management

I was responsible for the technical side of the process for the whole department, that means getting the raw data into our system, put them into form, and create fancy tables and figures out of it.

I have seen multiple dozens of bank books of different saving banks on a daily and detailed basis (the level that the CEOs and the regulaters like the EBA / ECB get), because my job was to provide this data to the experts. I wasn't qualified to interpret or analyze them directly, but after 5 years I got some knowledge of that field.

Yet a buddy of mine thought it was a good idea to explain me how the financial sector works, how a loan works, and tried to involve me in some pyramid scheme.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I assume he's stating that written feedback is never realy taken seriously or even read by the students and yet teachers are expected to spend their free time doing this pointless shit

pinky0926 posted...

i'm guessing its karen parents flipping out if they dont get a written report for every time their little angel did a sum that week

No, Im talking about schools expecting their teachers to write comments on every single piece of work the kids do. Its pointless.

Immediate verbal feedback has been shown to be much more effective, as is self-marking in maths (obviously not for assessments).

It doesnt benefit anybody but its a huge component of working hours in many cases.

indica posted...

I assume he's stating that written feedback is never realy taken seriously or even read by the students and yet teachers are expected to spend their free time doing this pointless shit

Half the time they arent even capable of accessing it.

Writing comments for a child that can barley read is clearly not done for the child.