Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun literally An enclosed structure where
bicycles may bestored . - noun figuratively, technical jargon A metaphor for arguing endlessly over details of some small and relatively unimportant thing, taking up time that could be better spent on other things. The gist is that while nobody will question the details of a large and complex project (e.g. a nuclear reactor), for a simple thing as a bikeshed everybody will loudly add their two cents as to exactly how it should be built/painted/constructed,
ad nauseum .
Etymologies
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Examples
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Kiss Chase Kate, they sold her pints on the promise of a peek, a snatch, a snapshot carved into a keyhole, a freezeframe of the zoetrope, and though she thought she'd left that all behind, behind the bikeshed, she obliged;
Day 13: Bikesheds Jane Flett 2011
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Throw in the fact that he speaks in geekspeak most of the time and looks as though he has just graduated out of short trousers, and you see why he has a mountain to climb and the Tories must be smiggering behind the bikeshed.
Archive 2008-08-03 2008
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Throw in the fact that he speaks in geekspeak most of the time and looks as though he has just graduated out of short trousers, and you see why he has a mountain to climb and the Tories must be smiggering behind the bikeshed.
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On top of that someone has tried to steal my bike from inside of the bikeshed - but being not quite competant enough had only chopped halfway through the secured bike chain!
Everything2 New Writeups TheDispatcher 2010
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This is a consequence of the infamous bikeshed effect.
Planet Python 2009
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The bikeshed effect is typical of any project designed by a committee: when it comes to proposing advanced functionalities that very few can understand, it is easy to get approval from the larger community.
Planet Python 2009
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This is a consequence of the infamous bikeshed effect.
Planet Python 2009
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Add This! okay, this one's a bit long and on the geeky side of things ... but i found it interesting, for whatever reason -- might be due to a little sleep deprivation of late or the changes in the weather ... not sure. why should i care what color the bikeshed is?
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Add This! okay, this one's a bit long and on the geeky side of things ... but i found it interesting, for whatever reason -- might be due to a little sleep deprivation of late or the changes in the weather ... not sure. why should i care what color the bikeshed is?
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In the most general terms, I think it’s important to acknowledge the importance of feedback in programming otherwise you start to fall into something like bikeshed thinking.
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To bikeshed is to devote way too much time and energy working on and optimizing trivial issues — that are often hypothetical future problems that don’t exist yet — instead of focusing on what’s actually important right now.
5 Commonly Used Idioms in the Tech Industry Karina Chow 2023
jrome commented on the word bikeshed
"Along the same lines: Universal Edit Button. It appears to be mired in bikeshed syntax discussions at the moment, but the idea is simple enough: “edit this page�? links in wikis and such have always been included directly in the web pages themselves." from http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/06/21/minimalism
June 23, 2008