phrase
Black Hole
Anything that absorbs whatever enters it and gives nothing back.
Origin
In astrophysics, a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape โ first predicted by general relativity and confirmed observationally in the 20th century. The first direct image, of the supermassive black hole M87*, was published in 2019. The phrase escaped physics into everyday English well before that.
Modern usage
Universal in business and project management. 'A budget black hole', 'a time black hole', 'a customer-support black hole'. Implies the resource went in and is never coming back.
In the wild
Quarterly planning has become a calendar black hole.โ common usage
Tags
consumption
loss
physics