4 ms·

I bet a huge amount of that is on your head, or if it is factual, a function of a toxic work culture where people are primarily incentivized to "outperform one

I bet a huge amount of that is on your head, or if it is factual, a function of a toxic work culture where people are primarily incentivized to "outperform one another" rather than arrive at collaborative solutions. The wealthy/owner class once again consume all of us -- here through AI -- because we cannot agree to work together.

vitally3643 4mo ago
No. It is a well established fact that the majority of users will not read documentation of any kind. This is not a new observation, it's been a meme in developer circles from the first day computers showed up in the workplace. You can step off your high horse now.
- satvikpendem 4mo ago
  It's not just docs too, it seems to be some general phenomenon that users don't read most anything on screen. This is from almost 20 years ago [0] and the original stretches back almost 30 years now [1]. [0] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/ [1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
- socalgal2 4mo ago
  In my defense. (1) I can't find the docs (2) I can't find the relevant docs (3) after having read several irrelevant docs they still don't answer my question but the question I need answering isn't actually in the docs.
  - pixl97 4mo ago
    I would add on that if AI doesn't seem to understand your docs then humans are going to have an even harder time. I've seen where when AI is asked a question on how to use some particular feature of a piece of software it couldn't get a working answer. I read the documents myself and was just as confused. Then looked up customer tickets around said feature, and they were confused too. I've taken that as a pretty good metric that if AI can't parse your documentation, your documentation is bad or wrong and needs to be rewritten.
closeparen 4mo ago
Many companies, including in their software development functions, are oral cultures rather than literate cultures.
jason_oster 4mo ago
"Collaboration" is bullshit. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484519
Kirth 4mo ago
This was also my first thought when reading the title: because Claude is a tool you use and co-workers are either competitors or people preferably dependent.. an anti-pattern and not good culture but sadly the norm. That's not to say that the help-vampires the parent mentions don't exist. I think we culturally are afraid of pushing back against them: telling them to RTFM and then come back.

vitally3643 4mo ago

No. It is a well established fact that the majority of users will not read documentation of any kind. This is not a new observation, it's been a meme in developer circles from the first day computers showed up in the workplace. You can step off your high horse now.

satvikpendem 4mo ago
It's not just docs too, it seems to be some general phenomenon that users don't read most anything on screen. This is from almost 20 years ago [0] and the original stretches back almost 30 years now [1]. [0] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-little-do-users-read/ [1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
socalgal2 4mo ago
In my defense. (1) I can't find the docs (2) I can't find the relevant docs (3) after having read several irrelevant docs they still don't answer my question but the question I need answering isn't actually in the docs.
- pixl97 4mo ago
  I would add on that if AI doesn't seem to understand your docs then humans are going to have an even harder time. I've seen where when AI is asked a question on how to use some particular feature of a piece of software it couldn't get a working answer. I read the documents myself and was just as confused. Then looked up customer tickets around said feature, and they were confused too. I've taken that as a pretty good metric that if AI can't parse your documentation, your documentation is bad or wrong and needs to be rewritten.

closeparen 4mo ago

Many companies, including in their software development functions, are oral cultures rather than literate cultures.

jason_oster 4mo ago

"Collaboration" is bullshit. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484519

Kirth 4mo ago

This was also my first thought when reading the title: because Claude is a tool you use and co-workers are either competitors or people preferably dependent.. an anti-pattern and not good culture but sadly the norm. That's not to say that the help-vampires the parent mentions don't exist. I think we culturally are afraid of pushing back against them: telling them to RTFM and then come back.