banana problem

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)