August 10, 2025

A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.

C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993), English writer, naval historian, Parkinson’s Law (1958), Jay p.285

How can you tell if a committee to which you have been assigned has in fact accomplished anything other than filling out your daily schedule?

A let’s-form-a-committee mentality is the democratic equivalent to planting Virginia creeper in a garden: both are invasive species. In the case of committees, they soon breed one sub-committee, then another, and another, and maybe even a task force.