What has your tech career taught you about people?

[Dani]

Attn: Veteran developers: What's the most important lesson that your [decades-long] career in tech has taught you about people?

[Reverend Jim]

People will tell you what they want rather than what they need. But if you give them what they asked for they probably won't like it.

People who don't know how to design software will tell you how to design software.

Nobody has any idea how long it will take to do something.

[rproffitt]

Hmm, hard to choose which from https://giphy.com/explore/people-what-a-bunch-of-bastards

Who would withhold food from others?

Let's rumble! SNAP (USA) was funded and bastards, bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling will embrace cruelty in both our food and medical systems.

Not only that but we see SLAVERY coming back as workers are forced to labor without pay.

Yup, Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.

[Dani]

People will tell you what they want rather than what they need. But if you give them what they asked for they probably won't like it.

I would say that people don't know what they actually want until it's shown to them. You know, that quote attributed to Henry Ford that said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." That's why I have always asked to get a consensus of what people are thinking about, but ultimately I do whatever the data shows is the best choice.

For example, many years ago, I was running my coworking space back in NY, and having a conversation with a guy working there where he was expressing how he finds social media, and Facebook especially, really quite annoying, and he doesn't see the point. For the next couple of days, I noticed that every time I walked past his desk, he had a Facebook tab open in his browser.

[rproffitt]

You asked "What has your tech career taught you about people?" So yup, you are free to feel I'm not answering your question.

People are mostly self centered and this is not limited to what you learn in your career. We choose what is good or evil, with the balance depending on biology, environment, and individual choice.

Then we have the problem of how companies, not people behave.

How about applying Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics to corporations? Yes, let's do that!

[Dani]

But those 3 laws are meant to be obeyed by beings deemed less worthy than humans and, supposedly, capable of decision making without having to account for human character flaws. Corporations are equally as inherently self-centered as humans, given that they are owned and managed by humans who derive benefit from the actions of the corporations.

What would you change to create a world in which corporations are incentivized to behave less morally corrupt than the humans who lead them?

[Dani]

P.S. I'm not looking for an answer along the lines of putting less morally corrupt people into positions of power within the corporations. You said yourself that all people are self-centered to some degree, or, at the very least, are flawed by nature. How could corporations exist that are less flawed than the sum of their parts?

[rproffitt]

You wrote the right word which is "incentivized".

Let's consider going back to the Revenue Act of 1942. I won't duplicate the web on what it entailed but the effect was enjoyed by Baby Boomers and for a short time other generations.

Today, well, the 3 top concerns by "We the People" are the economy, healthcare and immigration. However our corporations don't participate in the same economy and the other two areas are from a view in the boardrooms, overhead and waste.

I should also note that Citizens United vs. FEC damaged our corporations morals. The idea that corporations are a person and by extension the more you pay the more you can influence your government means We the People will have to reiterate The 27 Grievances we had with King George III.

To anyone reading this, take a moment to read a few of The 27 Grievances. Link follows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievances_of_the_United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

[Reverend Jim]

Getting back to the original question...

I've learned that people do not respect software developers the way they respect architects. Both design "structures", but a rational person would never ask for major changes to a building plan in the middle of construction. That same person would think nothing of asking for software changes at the same stage of software development. Indeed, I've had people ask for changes within days of the proposed delivery date. Of course, any suggestion that it would postpone delivery is heresy.

[Dani]

I don't think it has anything to do with respect. I think it has to do with a lack of understanding and that's it. Someone can physically look at a lead pipe and realize that there's no magic wand that can instantaneously turn it into a copper pipe. If they want there to be a copper pipe in its place, it's a matter of uninstalling the lead pipe, disposing of the lead pipe, purchasing a copper pipe, and installing the copper pipe. I think most people understand and realize that. However, programming is magic. Someone can see a picture of a lead pipe in Photoshop, and with a single click, it can now look like a copper pipe. So much of computing provides instant gratification and instantaneous results, I think a lot of people just don't have awareness as to what takes a long time versus what takes a very short time to change.