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Never attribute to maliciousness that which can be explained with incompetence. Since two of the three are complete speculation, without any evidence, I'll add
by fortythirteen 9y ago
Never attribute to maliciousness that which can be explained with incompetence.
Since two of the three are complete speculation, without any evidence, I'll address the first example.
"suppress empty div" could mean that it is hiding an element until a condition in the form is met. You need to see the accompanying JS to understand any intent. It's entirely possible that bad programming is keeping the div both empty and suppressed.
- davidkuhta 9y ago"Hanlon's Razor" for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jasonkostempski 9y agoEven if the exact issues aren't by design, I have absolutely no doubt that the competent person that hired incompetent programmers to ensure policy holders have no idea what they're signing up for or how to make a claim was very much a premeditated malicious maneuver. Bonuses for them are cheap workers and scapegoats for when they piss off the wrong people.
- fortythirteen 9y agoHaving worked in equally despised and bureaucratic industries, and with HIPAA, I can assure you that the chances of that are very slim. Purposeful blocking of claim submission would mean millions of dollars in fines for an insurance company. Nobody is actively trying to bring that upon their department. Bureaucratic systems like health insurance are about preserving your position as having the most benefit with the least amount of responsibility. They are ecosystems of mediocrity. A VP at an insurance company generally cares about two things, balance sheets that make him/her look like they're doing a good job and tomorrow's tee time. Directors care about their line on the balance sheet pleasing the VP. That's how you get most insurance company software written by low-wage, visa workers, who could care less about code quality or maintainability, because they'll be at a new gig within a year or two.
- hectorr1 9y agoBut developer incompetence and poor product design can be a 'dark' strategy as well, just a passive one instead of an active one. Good UX doesn't matter because users are not customers to health insurers, they are just cost centers. Their employers are the customers, and those guys care about how cheaply they can buy insurance and retain the quality level of their desired employee base. If the goal is to sell lots of insurance and pay little in claims, the strategy makes sense. So you spend as little as possible on UX. NB: I think this is also how enterprise tech works.
- fortythirteen 9y agoInsurance companies don't think of "members" as just cost centers. They're a lot more picky around the concept of "hiring and firing" customers. Put it in the perspective of a freelance web developer. If someone is going to pay you x amount of dollars to build a website, but cost you more than x in support time and change requests, you either have to up the price or not take on the customer.
- tw1010 9y ago"Never"?
- siegecraft 9y agoWhen doing something malicious, use incompetence as your cover.
- fortythirteen 9y agoNah, you just attribute it to "miscommunication".
- TheCoelacanth 9y agoThat is hopelessly naive. When someone "accidentally" does something that furthers their own best interests, it usually isn't really an accident.