Sayre's Law
In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.
Tiny Summary
Sayre's Law: "In any dispute, intensity is inversely proportional to the stakes." Minor issues generate the most heated debates. Also known as "bikeshedding."
The Phenomenon
Low stakes → Intense debate: Code formatting (100-comment thread), naming variables (hours of argument), tabs vs spaces (religious war)
High stakes → Quick decision: Architecture ("Sounds good, ship it"), cloud provider (brief discussion), database (one meeting)
Why It Happens
Everyone has opinions on simple things: Anyone can discuss variable names. Not everyone understands distributed systems. Simple = accessible = more debate.
Complexity intimidates: Big decisions are scary. People defer to experts. Less debate because fewer people qualified.
Parkinson's Law of Triviality: People spend time inversely proportional to importance. Bikeshed color gets more attention than nuclear reactor design.
The Bikeshed Example
Nuclear reactor (millions, complex): 5-minute discussion, defer to engineers, approved quickly
Bikeshed (hundreds, simple): 3-hour debate, everyone has color opinions, endless back-and-forth
Why: Everyone understands bikesheds, nobody understands reactors.
In Software
Major refactor ($100k+): Approved in one meeting, few qualified to debate, ships quickly
Code style (0 cost): 200-comment PR thread, everyone has strong opinions, takes longer than the refactor
Avoiding Bikeshedding
Time-box: "5 minutes on this, then moving on." Use linter, follow existing style, "doesn't matter, pick one."
Recognize pattern: Heated debate on trivial topic? Bikeshedding. Move on.
Defer to conventions: Use established style guides, follow language idioms, adopt community standards.
Key Insights
Trivial issues waste the most time. High-stakes decisions get less scrutiny. Everyone feels qualified to debate simple things. Bikeshedding is a time sink—avoid it. "This is bikeshedding" is a useful callout.