Bike-Shedding

Also Known As

TL;DR

Explanation

Parkinson's Law of Triviality (1957): a committee approving a nuclear power plant spends most of its time debating the bicycle shed design because everyone can have an opinion on a shed but few understand nuclear engineering. In software: code style debates, naming bikesheds, and tooling arguments consume hours while architecture decisions and security reviews get minutes. The cure is automated formatting (remove the decision entirely) and time-boxed decisions with explicit owners.

Common Misconception

Why It Matters

Common Mistakes

• Long PR comments on formatting instead of using PHP-CS-Fixer to make it automatic.
• Hours of team discussion on variable naming conventions — write a one-page guide, enforce with linting.
• No time-boxing on style decisions — set a 15-minute limit and let the tech lead decide.
• Not recognising that some bike-shedding is social bonding — context matters.

Code Examples

// PR with 23 comments:
// 'Should this be $userEmail or $emailAddress?' (12 replies)
// 'I prefer double quotes here' (8 replies)
// 'Should we use early return?' (3 replies)
// 'Trailing comma or no?' (5 replies)
// Actual logic bug in the method: 0 comments
// PR open for 3 days over style

// Automated style = zero discussion:
// .php-cs-fixer.dist.php configured once
// pre-commit hook auto-fixes before commit
// CI fails on style violations
// PR comments focus on: correctness, security, architecture
// Style: never discussed again

References

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

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