Ask HN: Why do so many developers seem hostile to their users these days?

OK so this is a question I'm arguably qualified to talk about -- I focus on usability and promoting it within a large tech company.

The problem that I see a lot is that engineers are not well-versed in what I will call 'imaginative empathy'[1], which, as I define it, is the ability to creatively conceive of end-user needs by reflecting at length on who those people are, what they desire, and what they expect, _even when the end user is a very different kind of person than the developer_, with different strengths, weaknesses, and expectations.

I'm at this moment setting up an internal programme to try to beef up imaginative empathy among engineers. My premise is that imaginative empathy is actually not hard to train for -- people in helping professions (counsellors, therapists, social workers) get pretty good at it, as do novelists; but, like any muscle, it can atrophy, and it is emphatically not something that is tested for in most interviews. Therefore, since it is not selected for, it is often not in abundance on any particular engineering team.

A book that inspired me in this approach is _Anthro-vision_, by Gillian Tett, which is a gift to anyone who makes anything for another human being, and wants them to enjoy it.

1. Empathy on its own isn't enough -- people tend to empathize most with people who are most like them. Sometimes this is enough on its own -- if you're a neovim obsessive (like me :D) and you're making an extension for other neovim obsessives, you can run on just regular empathy. But most of the code I write is not written for 'people like me', it's written for people in the general case, and that means a cognitive stretch. Imagining the Other and attempting to be of service to them requires imagination. I'm inspired in this observation by Buddhist 'metta' practice, and the ways in which the Buddhist conception of 'compassion' differs markedly from what is often called empathy by contemporary professional psychologists.

For example, for Blizzard management it is easy to release half finished, buggy Warcraft 3 reforged because they can make money. Microsoft has no problem in putting ads in your start menu in OS that you paid for. Firefox can fire developers working on browser innovation (servo) and pay more to CEO. Apple and Intel can manufacture in almost slave labor conditions even having billions in theirs accounts because that what make them more money.

That is few problems

  - most users do not understand software or computers
  - building software is hard
  - users do not care enough two boycott companies
  - unrestricted capitalism create conditions for abuse

One of my least favorite days are when we announce new features. Nobody takes a minute to say thank you, instead they want to submit new requests or demand updates on something previously submitted.

I also think, users do not understand the complexities involved. They see software every where that does so much these days for little to no cost and they just demand and think it can be done in a minute.

Sure we get paid well, and it's not a physically demanding field. But it is a mentally demanding job. We are often under appreciated. And then the users blame you for everything. It just gets to you after a while and becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of the angry old developer.

I love my job, I love making software that solves real world problems. I just don't appreciate users telling me how my life's work is worthless because it doesn't have this one feature only that person seems to need and I should be able to add it in a minute if I was good at my job.

Sorry for the rant.

A few years later, folks on HN will be waxing nostalgic and wondering why we can't build things like that anymore.