Then it sounds like you've known some asshole executives and consultants that have completely misread this book. Cooper's point was that, sans any other guidan

Then it sounds like you've known some asshole executives and consultants that have completely misread this book. Cooper's point was that, sans any other guidance, programmers naturally tend to create interfaces that reflect the structure of the code (since that is what they are immersed in) rather than the structure of their user's goals. And the reason they don't have any other guidance is that people running technology companies didn't have any kind of design phase other than sending salesmen out to get pointless checklists of features. If anything, the book is a criticism of the way tech companies are (or at least used to be) run rather than a criticism of diligent programmers doing their best with incomplete information. In fact Cooper says this several times during the book. Unfortunately, it seems easier for a lot of business guys to use the book to transfer blame to programmers rather than implement what it actually says. Really bad Amazon summary too.