6 ms·
> At some point, they need to stop asking "can we add this feature?" and start asking "does this text editor need a network-aware rendering stack?" They didn’t
by bigfatkitten 8mo ago
> At some point, they need to stop asking "can we add this feature?" and start asking "does this text editor need a network-aware rendering stack?"
They didn’t stop there. They also asked “does this need AI?” and came up with the wrong answer.
- sneak 8mo agoIt’s just resumé driven development. Corporate droids gotta justify their salaries somehow. It doesn’t pay to call software “done”.
- cyanydeez 8mo agoMicrosoft is driving AI adoption. Why blame tge workers for this?
- throwpoaster 8mo agoMicrosoft is comprised of its workers.
- jdsampayo 8mo agoAll workers are equal, but some workers are more equal than others
- stalfosknight 8mo agoI have been thinking about this Animal Farm quote a lot recently.
- wormpilled 8mo agoWhy can't Indian software developers stand up for themselves and say no?
- vachina 8mo agoHard to say no to paycheck
- onion2k 8mo agoBecause there are plenty of developers who'll say yes, so anyone saying no is putting their ethics ahead of their livelihood. Few people will be willing to put their beliefs ahead of providing for their family. It's easy to say you will, and very hard to actually do it.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- eterm 8mo agoThat's what ethics are. If you don't make sacrifices for them they aren't ethics they're just conveniences.
- trinix912 8mo agoThis is easy to say until you're an immigrant worker in a foreign country - something one probably worked for their entire life up to that point - risking it all (and potentially wrecking the life of their entire family) just to stop some random utility from having a Copilot button. It's not "this software will be used to kill people", it's more like "there's this extra toolbar which nobody uses". In life you have to choose your battles.
- xantronix 8mo agoI hadn't made more solid connections between the current state of software and industry, the subjugation of immigrants, and the death of the American neoliberal order until this comment thread but it here it lies bare, naked, and essentially impossible to ignore. With regards to the whole picture, there's no good or moral place to "RETVRN" to in a nostalgic sense. The one question that keeps ringing through my head as I see the world in constant upheaval, and my one refuge in meaning, technical craftsmanship, tumbling, is: Why did I not see this coming?
- whatsupdog 8mo agoUnjustified downvoting. You absolutely have a point. Not just software, also the gazillion UI/UX designers. They keep moving things around and changing colors and fucking things up just to justify their salaries. Case in point: Google maps. It was perfect 15 years ago. We don't need vomit inducing color changes every 2 years
- jahsome 8mo agoAnd yet, if they were raising a Series A, they'd be lauded as "disruptors"
- zerkten 8mo agoEven if you talk to users, you can do it the wrong way. Big companies are incentivized by the stock market to care more about new users than existing ones because their only focus is growth. Growth can't be rooted in your existing users is a common feeling in product management circles. If you try to do things for people other than your existing users, then you end up doing odd stuff that at best is a mild annoyance. More likely you hurt their ability to continue using the app.
- wlesieutre 8mo agoExemplified by every website with a massive SIGN UP button and then a little 8 pt font log in tucked away somewhere underneath. Gee thanks for helping me find the button I'll use literally once and making me hunt for the one I'll need the other 99999 times I use this service. Existing users can go fuck themselves as long as new people are registering. Line go up!
- bradfitz 8mo agoI can’t tell you how relieving it is to hear somebody else complain about this. This has been my pet peeve for ages.
- ThrowawayB7 8mo agoIndividual developers or even developer management doesn't get much of a say in product direction at large corporations. The product management folks are who decide what features go in and when.
- GuinansEyebrows 8mo agoPMs have resumes too :) - Successfully led key efforts to modernize aging platform technologies - Directed integration of cutting-edge system-wide artificial intelligence functionality
- ThrowawayB7 8mo agoIf I had to guess, the mandate to cram AI in everywhere came down from Nadella and the executive level with each level of management having KPIs for AI in their product all the way down. Much like the "everything has to be .NET even though nobody has any idea what .NET means" when it was first introduced and every MS product suddenly sprouted .NET at the end of their names. When executive management gives stupid non-negotiable orders, they get stupid results.
- vachina 8mo agoAI is useful but these management type typically don’t know how to make it useful.
- bigstrat2003 8mo agoNow imagine that you are someone who doesn't even think AI is useful, and imagine just how much more infuriating it is to have it crammed in. Drives me up a wall.
- FridgeSeal 8mo agoThat’s why they spend all their time on LinkedIn creating “7 levels of ai readiness” instead of…actually doing anything productive and useful.
- bigfatkitten 8mo agoI’m all for AI integrated into applications where it makes sense; “remove background” buttons in image editors, for example, where the application uses AI to perform a useful function, without the user needing to care what happened under the hood. Microsoft’s product managers however have no imagination, and so they insist on just mindlessly shoving obnoxious Copilot buttons everywhere.
- est 8mo agoI think they came up the the exact right answer like: > How do I add more features to get a promotion
- psychoslave 8mo agoBut can it generate qrcode already?
- tombert 8mo agoIt is a bit odd that they basically took one of Microsoft’s most universally hated features (Clippy) and then decided “let’s put this into literally every part of the OS”.