boil the ocean

boil the ocean

/bɔɪl ðə ˈoʊʃən/

Office Idioms

to attempt an impossibly large or unfocused task

boil the ocean in a sentence

“We can't boil the ocean — let's scope this down to three core features.”

Origin of boil the ocean

Popularized by Will Rogers; used in business to caution against overambitious scope