Bike Shedding

In his 1957 book Parkinson's Law, Parkinson presents an example of a budget committee considering an atomic reactor and a bike shed, offering that "the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved." The committee members are reluctant to deeply discuss all of the complicated aspects of the atomic reactor decision because it is challenging and esoteric. By contrast, everyone wants to weigh in with their opinion on the bike shed decision because it is easy and familiar relative to the reactor, even though it is also relatively unimportant. This phenomenon has become known as bike-shedding.