[pongle]

I have always wondered what I should do with this piece of information. Does it mean that every proposal I want to have passed by people should be extremely large and complex? Conversely, if I want to engage people, should is be over something simple?

Or is it just, take simple decisions yourself and try hard to get input on the complex ones?

[jrockway]

I have always wondered what I should do with this piece of information.

All it means is that if you want people to implement your idea in an open source project, send a patch. Ideas don't get the project anywhere, nor does endless discussion. Shut the fuck up and write some code.

It's even on a T-shirt: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/2162805091_44ece496b7_m....

[ajross]

The admonishment here is to the managers, not the people writing the proposals. The point is to let go and let your people do the simple stuff on their own.

If you're stuck proposing a bike shed to people you know are going to muck with it, I think you're pretty much stuck. Short of deception, you can't stop them from doing what they want.

[michaelneale]

Simple can be fine, its unimportant trivia that the "bike shed" refers to. Complex != important necessarily.