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It's about fucking time. I personally stay away from software created by people who lack empathy; technical goodness !> creating a good environment and product

It's about fucking time. I personally stay away from software created by people who lack empathy; technical goodness !> creating a good environment and product for actual people. I don't go to restaurants run by douchebags either, no matter how good the food might be. And Git has the UX of software created by someone with no empathy. I hope Linus heals from this, and I hope the culture of the Linux community changes as well, but that will take years to get past his past behavior.

anothergoogler 8y ago
I'll bite, what makes a version control system empathetic?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- afarrell 8y ago
  The long answer to your question is essentially the entire field of Developer Experience Design, but good intros to it are this Joel Splosky post: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/10/controlling-your-environment-makes-you-happy/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/10/controlling-your-e... And this talk at pyTexas: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZ_E1OO_PY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZ_E1OO_PY I think git does have some significant design warts but I think when we use the word ‘empathy’ in this context, we should remember that we are referring to a skill not some innate quality that makes someone more or less human.
sgt 8y ago
Downvoted, although your git UX comment made me smirk.
- dboreham 8y ago
  Made me think "ok, now let's have an apology for Git"...
craftyguy 8y ago
> And Git has the UX of software created by someone with no empathy. I would really like to understand what you expect a UX for a command line tool to look like. Maybe instead of throwing an error if you did something wrong, it would apologize to you first? Or perhaps it should preface all output with "dearest Sir/Madam, here is the information you requested:" ?
- anothergoogler 8y ago
  There would be no output. Sometimes you just need your software to listen, not try and solve everything, and it would understand that.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    How in the world do you have a useful source control tool with no output?
  - pron 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
- pron 8y ago
  As a first step, you'd need to know what empathy is [1]. It's the ability to perceive a situation from the experience of another. It is the very essence of UX design. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
- CRConrad 8y ago
  Good UI for command line tool = consistent syntax? I'm only slowly getting the hang of basic git usage, so I'm probably not qualified to criticize it myself, but I've seen some Web pages (blog posts?) that seemed to make a pretty cogent argument that git isn't too great in that department. Sorry, no links to hand.
zeroname 8y ago
Your "criticism" of Git's UX is basically an ad-hominem attack on Git contributors, who you do not actually know personally. Are you sure it isn't you who lacks empathy? I'm not fond of Git myself, by the way.

anothergoogler 8y ago

I'll bite, what makes a version control system empathetic?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
afarrell 8y ago
The long answer to your question is essentially the entire field of Developer Experience Design, but good intros to it are this Joel Splosky post: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/10/controlling-your-environment-makes-you-happy/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/10/controlling-your-e... And this talk at pyTexas: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZ_E1OO_PY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZ_E1OO_PY I think git does have some significant design warts but I think when we use the word ‘empathy’ in this context, we should remember that we are referring to a skill not some innate quality that makes someone more or less human.

sgt 8y ago

Downvoted, although your git UX comment made me smirk.

dboreham 8y ago
Made me think "ok, now let's have an apology for Git"...

craftyguy 8y ago

> And Git has the UX of software created by someone with no empathy. I would really like to understand what you expect a UX for a command line tool to look like. Maybe instead of throwing an error if you did something wrong, it would apologize to you first? Or perhaps it should preface all output with "dearest Sir/Madam, here is the information you requested:" ?

anothergoogler 8y ago
There would be no output. Sometimes you just need your software to listen, not try and solve everything, and it would understand that.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  How in the world do you have a useful source control tool with no output?
- pron 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
pron 8y ago
As a first step, you'd need to know what empathy is [1]. It's the ability to perceive a situation from the experience of another. It is the very essence of UX design. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
CRConrad 8y ago
Good UI for command line tool = consistent syntax? I'm only slowly getting the hang of basic git usage, so I'm probably not qualified to criticize it myself, but I've seen some Web pages (blog posts?) that seemed to make a pretty cogent argument that git isn't too great in that department. Sorry, no links to hand.

zeroname 8y ago

Your "criticism" of Git's UX is basically an ad-hominem attack on Git contributors, who you do not actually know personally. Are you sure it isn't you who lacks empathy? I'm not fond of Git myself, by the way.