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The thing is they are not different in this case. Null is not a special surname, it was perfectly normal before digital data processing. It was made „special“ i

The thing is they are not different in this case. Null is not a special surname, it was perfectly normal before digital data processing. It was made „special“ in a solution of some incompetent engineer, so if you want to tell this person the reason, the root cause is that someone screwed up, not the name. And I’m pretty sure they are being told that. How would it help to say, that the reason was their name? To make them feel bad because of who they are? They cannot do anything but to think that all this suffering is because of the name, which will be wrong. Some engineers are often too lazy to do a research and make narrow-minded and ignorant assumptions about the culture: this is just one example, but there are many more. Should we every time tell the victim that they were denied service because of who they are, what they do or how they live instead of just fixing the engineering culture?

zamadatix 4y ago
Your first thoughts on actually explaining things to the user being "How would it help to say, that the reason was their name? To make them feel bad because of who they are? They cannot do anything but to think that all this suffering is because of the name, which will be wrong." reads more like fear the user is a complete idiot who can not possibly comprehend things or take any useful action without engineers doing it for them than concern or reasoning about the issues and problems they are facing. Why wouldn't they be able to comprehend the issue is in the computer system not their person when told it is so? Why would they not be able to utilize this knowledge to seek faster resolution for themselves in the future? Why is a user being explained a problem suddenly a blocker for engineering culture being able to progress? Should we hide all information from a user because some IT person is too afraid to talk to users like they are intelligent people instead of a mindless husks which exclusively require engineers understand and resolve the problems they face in life? Yes we should inform all users about how existing systems are failing them especially if it's reasonably likely to cause them further problems in the future and yes we can do that without telling them they themselves are the problem and dictating the way they need to live. All it requires is treating them like a person when you talk with them and you can be helpful instead of blatantly insulting. Hiding that information from them only serves engineers not the users. This also has nothing to do with "cultural misunderstandings" in the first place. Null is by no means some foreign concept name to the stereotypical programmer nor are common names exempt from causing problems. My name is Daniel Smith, it's actually so common it causes many problems in computer systems which use first + initial last name (shortened) + number because they didn't plan on having that many numbers - not to mention lookup confusion. You're specifically seeking a debate on engineers not being culturally aware when it's not even at play or even a requirement in the general sense of the topic.

zamadatix 4y ago

Your first thoughts on actually explaining things to the user being "How would it help to say, that the reason was their name? To make them feel bad because of who they are? They cannot do anything but to think that all this suffering is because of the name, which will be wrong." reads more like fear the user is a complete idiot who can not possibly comprehend things or take any useful action without engineers doing it for them than concern or reasoning about the issues and problems they are facing. Why wouldn't they be able to comprehend the issue is in the computer system not their person when told it is so? Why would they not be able to utilize this knowledge to seek faster resolution for themselves in the future? Why is a user being explained a problem suddenly a blocker for engineering culture being able to progress? Should we hide all information from a user because some IT person is too afraid to talk to users like they are intelligent people instead of a mindless husks which exclusively require engineers understand and resolve the problems they face in life? Yes we should inform all users about how existing systems are failing them especially if it's reasonably likely to cause them further problems in the future and yes we can do that without telling them they themselves are the problem and dictating the way they need to live. All it requires is treating them like a person when you talk with them and you can be helpful instead of blatantly insulting. Hiding that information from them only serves engineers not the users. This also has nothing to do with "cultural misunderstandings" in the first place. Null is by no means some foreign concept name to the stereotypical programmer nor are common names exempt from causing problems. My name is Daniel Smith, it's actually so common it causes many problems in computer systems which use first + initial last name (shortened) + number because they didn't plan on having that many numbers - not to mention lookup confusion. You're specifically seeking a debate on engineers not being culturally aware when it's not even at play or even a requirement in the general sense of the topic.