Using Gloves to Get a Mental Grip

If you've ever heard of bike shedding, you might get a whiff of déjà vu from a piece by Alex Papadimoulis at The Daily WTF. To begin with, his example discussion arises from a cyclist's desire to keep his hands warm in the winter.

Image by Axel Brunst, via Unsplash, license.

That coincidence aside, if we take bike shedding to mean have a lengthy, unproductive discussion over a minor issue, then we see that Papadimoulis describes a kind of bike shed discussion.

Usually, bike shedding occurs when people out of their depth focus on some minor issue they know something about (e.g., "it is easier for a committee to approve a nuclear power plant than a bicycle shed").

But here, we have knowledge domain experts beating a solved problem to death, apparently oblivious to said solution, which a quick reminder causes them to realize they do know of and understand.

In the example, a bunch of engineers got going with an idea for heated handlebar grips for bicycles until someone who wasn't zeroed in on the discussion casually popped the whole thing like a balloon:

The reason that this "hand warming system" does not exist is because most people have found a pair of gloves to be a perfectly suitable way for keeping one's hands warm.

Most of us have seen or participated in discussions like this, and Papadimoulis proposes that the word gloves, with his full example in mind, might be a good, quick way to help oneself step back and gain perspective long enough to identify such discussions or, better yet, avoid them altogether.

I think that's great advice, and I appreciate that a single, memorable word tied at once to a common object and a good example of failing to keep the big picture in mind can help one implement that advice.

-- CAV

P.S. The kind of discussion Papadimoulis describes is common and has been around enough to give rise to such unflattering stereotypes as the proverbial professor who lacks common sense.

It is interesting to consider how much of this phenomenon comes down to fascination with interesting problems vs. a kind of dis-integrated thinking, in which a person is prone not to relate knowledge he has across domains.

I have often seen intelligent people failing to make connections I deem near-obvious en route to mini-versions of the discussion at The Daily WTF. Unfortunately, in those cases, there isn't a well-developed thread one can puncture with a single word, or time to help make an immediate correction. Still, it can be helpful to know that this might be going on.

I have found that time can help, at least in cases where ethusiasm for a given subject overwhelms thoughts about other concerns. Revisiting a topic after some time has passed often helps when that is possible.