BANANA PROBLEM
banana problem: translation
n.
Going too far with a project, or not knowing when to bring a project to a close.
Example Citation:[The] banana problem...applies to when Web site designers don't know when to call it quits, resulting in an overload of bells and whistles, as in In an attempt to retain their target market's short attention span, the TeenCool Co. Web site had developed a real banana problem.
—"Lingowatch," The Globe and Mail, May 4, 2000
Earliest Citation:Right now the publishing industry has a banana problem with books about hackers: it can't seem to stop publishing them.
—Mark Edwards, "The post-modem world," Sunday Times, February 7, 1993
Notes:This phrase comes from the story of the little girl who said, "I know how to spell 'banana,' I just don't know when to stop."
Related Words:BANANA
binary problem
champagne problem
cockroach problem
nailing jelly to a tree
toy problem
Category:Sociology (General)