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Law of Triviality
Leadership / Concepts · Updated Apr 2026
People spend disproportionate time on trivial issues while neglecting important ones.
Also known as Bikeshedding (from Parkinson's observation that a committee will spend more time debating the colour of a bike shed than the design of a nuclear reactor).
Why It Happens
- Everyone can have an opinion on simple things.
- Complex things are intimidating, so people stay quiet.
- Contributing to a trivial discussion feels productive.
In Engineering Teams
- Long debates about code style while ignoring architecture debt.
- Hours spent on naming conventions, minutes on security.
- Passionate arguments about tooling while the product strategy is unclear.
How to Counter It
- Set time limits on discussions. If it's trivial, decide quickly.
- For big decisions, make sure the right people are in the room and the rest are excluded.
- Ask: "Is this decision reversible?" If yes, just pick one and move on.
- Use the "two-way door" test: reversible decisions don't need long debates.
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