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I have a theory that software drives people insane

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Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#51

Post by zahlman »

mjr00 wrote: post #43
anonymars wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple example: feature X is rarely used (thus we should get rid of it) Hold on, why is it rarely used? Is it hard to use? Is it hard to find? Was it poorly named? Does it work right? Does it get me 80% of the way there? Does it get me 20% of the way there? Do I rarely need it but when I do need it it's a huge time saver? Am I hesitant to depend on it because I fear it will be taken away in a future update?

> Simple example: feature X is rarely used (thus we should get rid of it) Oh man, I remember a very specific example of this: many years ago now, Google Chrome pushed an update that got rid of the option on the menu bar for "Close Tabs to the Right". I remember looking into the Google issue tracker where people were complaining, and some PM provided a "data-driven" justification: when people opened the context menu,…

For what it's worth, I definitely don't organize my tabs in a way where "close to the right" would be helpful in cleaning them up.

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#52

Post by some_furry »

robertlagrant wrote: post #45
devmor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What problem are we trying to solve?" is a question I have to ask constantly in corporate development environments, and rarely does anyone presenting the task to be done actually know the answer! It's very frustrating.

It can be the case that people don't want to accidentally mis-state the problem, or get into a debate about the problem because they know people will chime in about nonessentials. I would recommend "Have we written down the problem we are trying to solve? I'd like to understand more." And get it written down if it isn't already.

Trying to position the conversation as "we're on the same team, trying to figure the problem out together" also helps a lot of the intensity of these conversations melt away.

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#53

Post by gowld »

hackingonempty wrote: post #12
JohnMakin wrote: post #2

> Not in the "wash your hands every thirty minutes like Howard Hughes" kind of way, Hold on, this isn't that crazy in today's day and age. I used to wash my hands basically only when using the restroom or before eating. Since the pandemic though, I started upping that a lot (not every 30 minutes, but pretty frequently) and since then almost never get sick.

The Cochrane review of "physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses" that infamously does not find a significant effect for masking does find significant effects for hand washing.

Even that is overselling it:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...

> Key messages

> We are uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses based on the studies we assessed.

> Hand hygiene programmes may help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses.

> There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect.

> Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI [influenza-like illnesses] and laboratory‐confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes.

> Our confidence in these results is generally low to moderate for the subjective outcomes related to respiratory illness, but moderate for the more precisely defined laboratory‐confirmed respiratory virus infection, related to masks and N95/P2 respirators.

> Relatively low numbers of people followed the guidance about wearing masks or about hand hygiene, which may have affected the results of the studies.

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#54

Post by Terr_ »

Reminds me of this 2014 post "Programming Sucks" [0], which touches on some similar issues of getting disconnected from reality in a microcosm that always "ought" to be better than it is.

> All programming teams are constructed by and of crazy people [...]

> The destructive impact on the brain is demonstrated by the programming languages people write. [...]

> All programmers are forcing their brains to do things brains were never meant to do in a situation they can never make better, ten to fifteen hours a day, five to seven days a week, and every one of them is slowly going mad.

[0] https://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#55

Post by tjwebbnorfolk »

JohnMakin wrote: post #2

> Not in the "wash your hands every thirty minutes like Howard Hughes" kind of way, Hold on, this isn't that crazy in today's day and age. I used to wash my hands basically only when using the restroom or before eating. Since the pandemic though, I started upping that a lot (not every 30 minutes, but pretty frequently) and since then almost never get sick.

> in today's day and age

The human world today is freer of pathogens than at any point in all history.

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#56

Post by Terr_ »

anonymars wrote: post #36
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I think that over-reliance on analytics has had a similar effect; compared to relying primarily on proper usability research and in-person user studies, doing that creates a detachment and distance that further removes the project from reality. How great the impact is depends on how management uses the data. If they use it add resolution to broad strokes from studies and the like, there may be no negative…

Simple example: feature X is rarely used (thus we should get rid of it) Hold on, why is it rarely used? Is it hard to use? Is it hard to find? Was it poorly named? Does it work right? Does it get me 80% of the way there? Does it get me 20% of the way there? Do I rarely need it but when I do need it it's a huge time saver? Am I hesitant to depend on it because I fear it will be taken away in a future update?

Conversely: Feature X is often used... Because to drive adoption someone made it mandatory for a certain workflow and it nags everyone else so they "engage" with it just enough to make it go away. (Looking at you, "AI" buttons...)

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#57

Post by vector_spaces »

strangattractor wrote: post #46
bob1029 wrote: post #4

Software development untethered from the practical realities of the customer / user is what drives people insane. When developers are required to interact with the customer on a regular basis , the freewheeling effects described in this article are damped massively. The potential for insanity goes off the charts when the development team is siloed away in solitary confinement and the only interactions with the client…

Sometimes I would ask stakeholders about some idea or nifty feature we were considering implementing. The answer was usually positive and enthusiastic. I'd then ask if they would use it and how it would help them. Silence.... Being untethered from reality is the natural state of humans;)

"What if I made X?" is basically Product Development Antipattern #1. Most feedback you get here is incredibly low signal. The stakeholder you're talking to isn't a technical person in all likelihood, so they probably aren't visualizing what you're describing in the same way you are. There is a high probability that they are telling you it sounds great as social lubricant or because they don't really understand what you are talking about and don't want to look dumb. Not to mention that positive response is the path of least resistance for most people -- the hard work of thinking critically about an idea so that you can locate potential flaws requires caring in the first place, and most people assume positive feedback is what you want to hear anyway.

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#58

Post by [deleted] »

zug_zug wrote: post #26
randusername wrote: post #8

My observation is simply that tech leaders misinterpret rewards from the market in conquering some abstract representation of a facet of a domain with conquering the domain itself. Then they become egomaniacal. Did you conquer commercial real-estate ushering in the future of work and society, or did you build a handy scheduling app? Did you have a neat idea for an online community or did you revolutionize human conne…

+1 . I think it takes a certain type of mental or emotional deficit to forfeit all of your free time and the majority stake in your company for funding for a tiny shot at hitting a grand-lam. "Not everything needs to be a platform". I remember a 10 person company that did translation dispatch for medical needs in California. And the CEO was insisting we needed to someday "become a platform."

[deleted]

Re: I have a theory that software drives people insane

#60

Post by Terr_ »

zug_zug wrote: post #26
randusername wrote: post #8

My observation is simply that tech leaders misinterpret rewards from the market in conquering some abstract representation of a facet of a domain with conquering the domain itself. Then they become egomaniacal. Did you conquer commercial real-estate ushering in the future of work and society, or did you build a handy scheduling app? Did you have a neat idea for an online community or did you revolutionize human conne…

+1 . I think it takes a certain type of mental or emotional deficit to forfeit all of your free time and the majority stake in your company for funding for a tiny shot at hitting a grand-lam. "Not everything needs to be a platform". I remember a 10 person company that did translation dispatch for medical needs in California. And the CEO was insisting we needed to someday "become a platform."

Similar to "needs to be a platform" [0], another variant is "be a data company" where somehow the underpants gnomes will transform your moat of stored information into profit.

[0] Read: "Needs to be pitch-able to investors as a magical 1000x growth unicorn."

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