What is 'Bikeshedding'? "Bikeshedding," also known as Parkinson's Law of Triviality, is a phenomenon where people in an organization give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. It's often seen in meetings where complex topics are glossed over, while simple, easy-to-understand (and thus seemingly easy to contribute to) issues consume an inordinate amount of time and debate. The term comes from C. Northcote Parkinson's book "Parkinson's Law," where he describes a fictional committee tasked with approving plans for a nuclear power plant. They breeze through the complex details of the reactor itself (because they don't understand it), but spend hours debating the trivial design of the bicycle shed. Everyone can visualize a bicycle shed and has an opinion, so everyone wants to contribute.