The phrase “raising kittens” or “herding cats” is used to describe the difficult task of organizing something chaotic or unmanageable. Its origin is disputed, with some attributing it to the IT community and others to a MENSA meeting. The phrase has become popular in the business world to describe projects that seem futile or chaotic.
Cat owners may immediately recognize the oxymoronic element of the phrase raising kittens, sometimes rendered as herding cats. Cats and kittens are notoriously difficult to fight or control, so the idea of breeding kittens would naturally sound like an exercise in futility. The concept of bringing order to chaos or organizing the unorganizable has been likened to the questionable task of raising kittens or cats.
There is a surprising amount of disagreement among etymologists about the origin of the phrase “how to raise kittens.” Some sources believe that the phrase originated in the IT community, where it would be considered difficult to arrange a meeting between individual programmers and other independent thinkers. Allegedly, a very senior member of the community who was tasked with organizing such a meeting of minds likened the experience to raising kittens, and the phrase became popular with managers and supervisors.
Others argue that the phrase came out of a 1981 MENSA meeting, in which some attendees wore homemade T-shirts with the caption “Organizing MENSA members is like raising kittens (or cats) – just use the right food.”, or at least something to that effect. The concept of something difficult or chaotic akin to raising kittens soon became a popular analogy among experts. Other organizations, however, claim to have invented the basic idea of ”Organizing (group name) is like raising kittens” long before the 1981 MENSA meeting.
The phrase has now become shorthand in the business world for embarking on a project fraught with chaos and futility. A project manager in charge of organizing a meeting of executives from all over the world can easily compare it to a kitten farm. The analogy is particularly apt when attendees at an organized event are notoriously iconoclasts or resistant to “groupthink.” Just like trying to raise kittens in real life, keeping a group of independent thinkers together as a cohesive group or managing several projects at the same time would be viewed by many as an exercise in futility.
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