What's a good short, casual term to say "overly likely to prioritize recent ideas"

Question

In a few communities I help organize or participate in the internal workings/politics of, I've recently started to critique the fact that we tend to be too liable to pivot our main attention into working on the most recent idea we've had, instead of following through on stuff we were previously working on.

This is, more or less, a form of recency bias. But the issue is that "recency bias" tends to come off as too technical of a term for more casual settings, and I often have to explain the term whenever I use it, robbing it of its usefulness. It's also a little too broad here and results in arguing because we're secretly using different senses of "recency bias" - even if I explain what I mean.

It can either imply the issue above or it can be interpreted as "forgetting previous contradictory feedback in favor of over-correcting to the most recent feedback". The latter is typically not an issue, we're not flip-flopping based on the most recent of e.g. "you're too strict" vs "you're too lenient", we're just prioritizing overall unrelated tasks and initiatives based on the most recent enthusiasm.

There are other terms that immediately come to mind, but are wrong in practice. "Reactionary" has too strong of a connotation of "right-wing/conservative" or alternatively "radical". "Overreact", while not strictly incorrect, tends to confuse people since it implies scope and intensity rather than literally "too likely to rush to prioritize". I tried to invent "overly reactive" but it turns out that it tends to just sound like I'm making a mistake and mean "overreact".

There are a lot of words that are similar: impulsive, hasty, rash etc. But they're just not quite there. I have a feeling whatever this is won't be a single word, but I'm struggling to find just the right term/phrase that's succinct, casual, and likely to be commonly understood (and ideally somewhat precise). I just don't want to be stuck always having to open with a full explanation like "Overly reactive, by which I mean we're too liable to focus [... etc etc]".

Answer 1

... we tend to be too liable to pivot our main attention into working on the most recent idea we've had, instead of following through on stuff we were previously working on.
...
but I'm struggling to find just the right term/phrase that's succinct, casual, and likely to be commonly understood (and ideally somewhat precise).

You could discuss the shiny object syndrome with your group once and then use the phrase (or even just "SOS") at future meetings as a pithy reminder that your group is getting into trouble by losing its focus with the risk of "sinking" prior ideas and objectives.

Shiny object syndrome is the situation where people focus undue attention on an idea that is new and trendy, yet drop it in its entirety as soon as something new can take its place.
Wikipedia

What is “Shiny Object Syndrome?”

Shiny object syndrome (SOS) is a continual state of distraction brought on by an ongoing belief that there is something new worth pursuing. It often comes at the expense of what’s already planned or underway. It’s rooted in that childhood phenomenon of always wanting a new toy, even if your current toy is just fine.
"Prepare Yourself Against Executive Shiny Object Syndrome"; productplan.com

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The shiny object syndrome is another classic management flaw that many organizations succumb to. What typically happens is that every project becomes a priority, so nothing becomes a priority.
Matthew Webster; Do No Harm (2021)

The so-called shiny object syndrome is real. You begin with good intentions on something and, sooner or later, something else appears and steals your attention, and then, all of a sudden, you are doing that thing instead. A vision board is bound to keep you focused. It assists you in remaining on course when something else is vying for your attention.
Manoj Chenthamarakshan; 25 Small Habits (2023)

An innovation is often referred to in the mobile industry as the next bright, shiny object because it attracts all the attention at the moment. Bright, shiny object syndrome can cause a marketer to lose focus on the company's ultimate objectives.
Chuck Martin; The Third Screen (2014)

Ross C. Brownson et al.; "Learning to Prioritize Our Collaborative Opportunities: Overcoming the Bright Shiny Object Syndrome", Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions 44(2) (2022)

James Marcum; "Patient‐oriented research and the shiny object syndrome", Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 2023, Vol 29

Answer 2

For a solid working person's phrase, something that people want to think about themselves, you can't go wrong with: follow-through. That flips it around: instead of saying it's bad to get distracted, we say it's good not to get distracted.

In a sentence: "These new ideas are good, but we need follow-through on our previous agenda". "We could do this new thing, but I need some volunteers who can see it to completion, really follow-through on it".

Although I think you had something you gave up on too early. "We're too liable to focus..." turns nicely into the blistering losing focus (which results in a lack of follow-through).

Answer 3

faddish: (temporarily) enjoying widespread favor or approval

Answer 4

Looking at several suggestions, "enthusiasm chasing" seems to me like a good candidate.

"Hype hopping" does hit that sweet spot of being:

• Instantly clear what it means
• Memorable and punchy

But it might sound a little bit too colloquial.

Answer 5

If you want to get all classical, "neophillia" and related words have to do with loving new things just because they are new.

Whether it's a better choice for your purposes than some of the other suggestions or not depends on how many palaeophiles you have in your organization.

Answer 6

Perhaps you could say there is a danger of just “Following the latest fad” or the latest “idea fad”.

Answer 7

A metaphor for pruning too severely in favour of new growth is throwing the baby out with the bath water:

• If you throw the baby out with the bath water, you lose the good parts of something as well as the bad parts, because you reject it as a whole instead of just removing what is bad [/suboptimal].

[Collins]