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Law Of Triviality
The law of triviality is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that people within an organization commonly or typically give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. Parkinson provides the example of a fictional committee whose job was to approve the plans for a nuclear power plant spending the majority of its time on discussions about relatively minor but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bicycle shed, while neglecting the proposed design of the plant itself, which is far more important and a far more difficult and complex task. The law has been applied to software development and other activities. The terms ''bicycle-shed effect'', ''bike-shed effect'', and ''bike-shedding'' were coined based on Parkinson's example; it was popularised in the Berkeley Software Distribution community by the Danish software developer Poul-Henning Kamp in 1999 and, due to that, has since become popular within the field of software development generally. Argume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Power Plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generator that produces electricity. , the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 422 nuclear power reactors in operation in 32 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction. Nuclear plants are very often used for base load since their operations, maintenance, and fuel costs are at the lower end of the spectrum of costs. However, building a nuclear power plant often spans five to ten years, which can accrue to significant financial costs, depending on how the initial investments are financed. Nuclear power plants have a carbon footprint comparable to that of renewable energy such as photovoltaic power station, solar farms and wind farms, and much lower than fossil fuels such as gas-fired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
How Many Angels Can Dance On The Head Of A Pin?
"How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" (alternatively "How many angels can stand on the point of a pin?") is a ''reductio ad absurdum'' challenge to medieval scholasticism in general, and its angelology in particular, as represented by figures such as Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. It is first recorded in the 17th century, in the context of Protestant apologetics. It also has been linked to the fall of Constantinople, with the imagery of scholars debating while the Turks besieged the city. In modern usage, the term has lost its theological context and is used as a metaphor for wasting time debating topics of no practical value, or questions whose answers hold no intellectual consequence, while more urgent concerns accumulate. Origin Thomas Aquinas's ''Summa Theologica'', written , includes discussion of several questions regarding angels such as, "Can several angels be in the same place?". However, the idea that such questions had a prominent place in medieval scholar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyranny Of Small Decisions
The tyranny of small decisions is a phenomenon explored in an essay of the same name, published in 1966 by the American economist Alfred E. Kahn. The article describes a situation in which a number of decisions, individually small and insignificant in size and time perspective, cumulatively result in a larger and significant outcome which is neither optimal nor desired. It is a situation where a series of small, individually rational decisions can negatively change the context of subsequent choices, even to the point where desired alternatives are irreversibly destroyed. Kahn described the problem as a common issue in market economics which can lead to market failure. The concept has since been extended to areas other than economic ones, such as environmental degradation, political elections and health outcomes. A classic example of the tyranny of small decisions is the tragedy of the commons, described by Garrett Hardin in 1968 Also availablherean/ref> as a situation where a numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time To Completion
Time to completion (TTC) is a calculated amount of time required for any particular task to be completed. Completion is defined by the span from "conceptualization to fruition (delivery)", and is not iteration, iterative. Similar to the metaphorical use of estimated time of arrival. TTC is commonly used when reporting on unmovable dates within a project time line. For example, a developer may report a TTC of 28 hours in regard to programming a particular application; although the application could perhaps be finished in 20 hours, the full allotted TTC will be fixed at 28 hours. References {{time-stub Schedule (project management) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Management
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to Employment, work, Interpersonal relationship, social life, family, hobby, hobbies, personal interests, and commitments with the finite nature of time. Using time effectively gives the person "choice" on spending or managing activities at their own time and expediency. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to management, manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals complying with a due date. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually, the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Time management is usually a necessity in any project man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Student Syndrome
''Student syndrome'' refers to planned procrastination, when, for example, a student will only start to apply themselves to an assignment at the last possible moment before its deadline. This eliminates any potential safety margins and puts the person under stress and pressure. According to one academic source, it is done in order to induce a level of urgency high enough to ensure the proper amount of effort is put into the task. The term is used to describe this form of procrastination in general, and not only by students. For example, in the field of software engineering: "This initial research investigates three behavioral issues which may affect team member productivity in both a traditional waterfall project and in a Scrum project: the management of stress, the use of slack and the student syndrome." The term is said to have been introduced by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his novel ''Critical Chain''. See also * Cramming (education) * Hofstadter's law * Parkinson's law * Pyg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sayre's Law
Sayre's law states, in a formulation quoted by Charles Philip Issawi: "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." By way of corollary, it adds: "That is why academic politics are so bitter." Sayre's law is named after Wallace Stanley Sayre (1905–1972), U.S. political scientist and professor at Columbia University. History On 20 December 1973, the ''Wall Street Journal'' quoted Sayre as: "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." Political scientist Herbert Kaufman, a colleague and coauthor of Sayre, has attested to Fred R. Shapiro, editor of ''The Yale Book of Quotations'', that Sayre usually stated his claim as "The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low", and that Sayre originated the quip by the early 1950s. Many other claimants attach to the thought behind Sayre's law. According to Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson frequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narcissism Of Small Differences
In psychoanalysis, the narcissism of small differences (german: der Narzissmus der kleinen Differenzen) is the idea that the more a relationship or community shares commonalities, the more likely the people in it are to engage in interpersonal feuds and mutual ridicule because of hypersensitivity to minor differences perceived in each other. The term was coined by Sigmund Freud in 1917, based on the earlier work of English anthropologist Ernest Crawley. Crawley theorized that each individual is separated from others by a taboo of personal isolation, which is effectively a narcissism of minor differences. Usage The term appeared in Freud's ''Civilization and Its Discontents'' (1929–30) in relation to the application of the inborn aggression in man to ethnic (and other) conflicts, a process still considered by Freud, at that point, as a convenient and relatively harmless satisfaction of the inclination to aggression. For Lacanians, the concept clearly related to the sphere of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procrastination
Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has originated from the Latin word ''procrastinatus'', which itself evolved from the prefix ''pro-'', meaning "forward," and ''crastinus'', meaning "of tomorrow." Oftentimes, it is a habitual human behaviour. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one's productivity often associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and inadequacy, it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive. From a cultural and a social perspective, studen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Principle
The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another. The concept was explained in the 1969 book ''The Peter Principle'' (William Morrow and Company) by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull. (Hull wrote the text, based on Peter's research.) Peter and Hull intended the book to be satire, but it became popular as it was seen to make a serious point about the shortcomings of how people are promoted within hierarchical organizations. The Peter Principle has since been the subject of much commentary and research. Summary The Peter principle states that a person who is competent at their job will earn a promotion to a position that requires different skills. If the promoted person lac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omission Bias
Omission bias is the phenomenon in which people prefer omission (inaction) over commission (action) and people tend to judge harm as a result of commission more negatively than harm as a result of omission. It can occur due to a number of processes, including psychological inertia, the perception of transaction costs, and the perception that commissions are more casual than omissions. In social political terms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes how basic human rights are to be assessed in article 2, as "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." criteria that are often subject to one or another form of omission bias. It is controversial as to whether omission bias is a cognitive bias or is often Rationality, rational. The bias is often showcased through the trolley problem and has also been described as an explanation for the endowment e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
