a camel is a horse designed by a committee
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- a camel is a horse designed by committee, a camel is a horse made by a committee, a camel is a horse made by committee
Etymology
[edit]The distinguishing features of a camel, like its humps, plate-shaped feet, habitual spitting, strange shape and poor temperament, can be seen as the sort of deformities that typify the sort of ideas that committees come up with that make projects bad.
Proverb
[edit]a camel is a horse designed by a committee
- Too many people on one project can spoil it by having conflicting or inexperienced ideas.
- 1952, Proceedings Regular Meeting, Ohio Valley Transportation Advisory Board, Pacific Northwest Advisory Board, page 24:
- A camel is a horse designed by a committee, so we hope that this committee will—and I think it will—function appropriately.
- 1964, Peter and the Commissar, Allan Sherman and the Boston Pops:
- And we all know the saying, which is true as well as witty, that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.
- 1975, The Professional Geographer: The Journal of the Association of American Geographers, volume 27, page 132:
- If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, what is a materials policy statement prepared by seven study teams?
- 1976, Popular Science, v.209 1976 Jul-Dec:
- Whoever concluded that a camel is a horse designed by a committee could have similar thoughts about taxicabs.
- 1998, The Possibility of Social Choice, Nobel Lecture, Amartya Sen:
- "A camel," it has been said, "is a horse designed by committee." This might sound like a telling example of the terrible deficiencies of committee decisions, but it is really much too mild an indictment.
- 2002,The West Wing, episode Night Five, original airdate February 6th, 2002:
- "This is a presidential address, Andrea, not a camel (...) A camel! A horse built by committee!" (Toby Ziegler)
- 2004, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005, Roger Ebert, Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 388:
- To quote another ancient proverb, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." Life or Something Like It is the movie designed by the camel.
- 2011, January 5, 2011 Mineola, NY Village Meeting. original airdate January 5, 2011:
- "You know what they say about committees, a camel is a horse designed by a committee - Honorable Mayor Lawrence Werther, Mayor of the Incorporated Village of Mineola, New York.
Translations
[edit]critique on committees
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