<qandaentry>

	<question>

	  <para>Why should I care what color the bikeshed is?</para>

	</question>

	<answer>

	  <para>The really, really short answer is that you shouldn't.

	    The somewhat longer answer is that just because you are

	    capable of building a bikeshed doesn't mean you should stop

	    others from building one just because you don't like the

	    color they plan to paint it.  This is a metaphor indicating

	    that you need not argue about every little feature just

	    because you know enough 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.</para>

	  <para>The longer and more complete answer is that after a very

	    long argument about whether &man.sleep.1; should take

	    fractional second arguments, Poul-Henning Kamp posted a long

	    message entitled <quote><ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=506636+517178+/usr/local/www/db/text/1999/freebsd-hackers/19991003.freebsd-hackers">A

	    bike shed (any colour will do) on greener

	    grass...</ulink></quote>.  The appropriate portions of that

	    message are quoted below.</para>

	  <blockquote>

	    <title>Excerpts from <quote>A bike shed (any colour will do) on

	      greener grass...</quote></title>

	    <attribution>Poul-Henning Kamp on freebsd-hackers, October

	      2, 1999</attribution>

	    <para>"What is it about this bike shed ?" Some of you have

	      asked me.</para>

	    <para> It's a long story, or rather it's an old story, but

	      it is quite short actually.  C. Northcote Parkinson wrote

	      a book in the early 1960'ies, called "Parkinson's Law",

	      which contains a lot of insight into the dynamics of

	      management.</para>

	    <para>[snip a bit of commentary on the book]</para>

	    <para>In the specific example involving the bike shed, the

	      other vital component is an atomic power-plant, I guess

	      that illustrates the age of the book.</para>

	    <para>Parkinson shows how you can go in to the board of

	      directors and get approval for building a multi-million or

	      even billion dollar atomic power plant, but if you want to

	      build a bike shed you will be tangled up in endless

	      discussions.</para>

	    <para>Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic

	      plant is so vast, so expensive and so complicated that

	      people cannot grasp it, and rather than try, they fall

	      back on the assumption that somebody else checked all the

	      details before it got this far.   Richard P. Feynmann

	      gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the point,

	      examples relating to Los Alamos in his books.</para>

	    <para>A bike shed on the other hand.  Anyone can build one

	      of those over a weekend, and still have time to watch the

	      game on TV.  So no matter how well prepared, no matter how

	      reasonable you are with your proposal, somebody will seize

	      the chance to show that he is doing his job, that he is

	      paying attention, that he is *here*.</para>

	    <para>In Denmark we call it "setting your fingerprint".  It

	      is about personal pride and prestige, it is about being

	      able to point somewhere and say "There!  *I* did that."

	      It is a strong trait in politicians, but present in most

	      people given the chance.  Just think about footsteps in

	      wet cement.</para>

	  </blockquote>

	</answer>

      </qandaentry>