In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise. More
Ed Zitron’s rant was a long read, but it sure did resonate with me. I’ve been in IT for quite a while (our first computer needed an upgrade for lower-case characters) and the current state of tech is utterly depressing. After reading the post, I think that our nerd culture in IT paved the way for the techbros. We need to take a hard look at ourselves, if we want to support this dystopian future we’re heading towards.
Back then, with the family computer (now having 16Kb and lower-case), computing was magical. You all know how it felt like, everything seemed possible, the screen was a window into the future. There were constant leaps in technology - we could store and edit audio, then video, instant worldwide communication. I’m sure that you believed, like I did, that IT could really improve people’s lives and make the world a better place.
But now, the meaningful improvements have become fewer, evolutionary. Consider the updates from your current phone and the last. Maybe the camera was a bit better, but did it really excite you or change your life? What about your laptop? Hardware is plateauing. Just like software.
I know that the engineering behind large enterprises like AWS or Netflix is just fantastic and improving all the time. But from a user’s point of view, not much has changed in a while.
Here’s the problem. We techies believe in the future, that we can change the world. And we are such insufferable know-it-alls that want to help you, and will help you, if you want it or not. There is nothing that could not be improved without computing and digitization. It’s how we are trained to think, it’s in our DNA. While you are speaking, we are making notes of redundancies, mentally tsk tsking your Excel sheets. We view the world a set of problems to be solved.
So then you have a site like (the olde) reddit, or your car, or your TV. All fully functional and fulfill all your needs. But we simply cannot admit to ourselves that our job is done - we must solve the next problem. Even if it isn’t a problem you’ve got!
And so we get computers in everything. In your TV, your car, your alarm clock, your living room lamps and kitchen appliances. All with their host of issues. And we get algorithms in everything, giving us suggestions and sending us reminders.
Current tech is intrusive, overbearing and patronizing - that’s putting it nice. A bunch of well-meant ingenuity is being wasted on problems nobody has.
We need to take people and their time serious, let them do their shit and just leave them the fuck alone when the job is done.
The root of the problem is growth and profit seeking is what is steering the tech research and production. Which just leads to an endless churn of useless software and hardware updates.
Desktop OSes peeked around Windows 7. macOS hasn’t had a useful feature since dark mode. The UIs have only gone down hill with trying to force them to be mobile friendly and flat.
The iPhone peeked around iPhone 8/iPhone X depending on if you liked the notch/FaceID or not. I’ve seen no useful features since.
Companies must make “progress” each year by releasing worse user hostile software updates and force device upgrades through planned obsolescence.
Ed Zitron’s rant was a long read, but it sure did resonate with me. I’ve been in IT for quite a while (our first computer needed an upgrade for lower-case characters) and the current state of tech is utterly depressing. After reading the post, I think that our nerd culture in IT paved the way for the techbros. We need to take a hard look at ourselves, if we want to support this dystopian future we’re heading towards.
Back then, with the family computer (now having 16Kb and lower-case), computing was magical. You all know how it felt like, everything seemed possible, the screen was a window into the future. There were constant leaps in technology - we could store and edit audio, then video, instant worldwide communication. I’m sure that you believed, like I did, that IT could really improve people’s lives and make the world a better place.
But now, the meaningful improvements have become fewer, evolutionary. Consider the updates from your current phone and the last. Maybe the camera was a bit better, but did it really excite you or change your life? What about your laptop? Hardware is plateauing. Just like software.
I know that the engineering behind large enterprises like AWS or Netflix is just fantastic and improving all the time. But from a user’s point of view, not much has changed in a while.
Here’s the problem. We techies believe in the future, that we can change the world. And we are such insufferable know-it-alls that want to help you, and will help you, if you want it or not. There is nothing that could not be improved without computing and digitization. It’s how we are trained to think, it’s in our DNA. While you are speaking, we are making notes of redundancies, mentally tsk tsking your Excel sheets. We view the world a set of problems to be solved.
So then you have a site like (the olde) reddit, or your car, or your TV. All fully functional and fulfill all your needs. But we simply cannot admit to ourselves that our job is done - we must solve the next problem. Even if it isn’t a problem you’ve got!
And so we get computers in everything. In your TV, your car, your alarm clock, your living room lamps and kitchen appliances. All with their host of issues. And we get algorithms in everything, giving us suggestions and sending us reminders.
Current tech is intrusive, overbearing and patronizing - that’s putting it nice. A bunch of well-meant ingenuity is being wasted on problems nobody has.
We need to take people and their time serious, let them do their shit and just leave them the fuck alone when the job is done.
The root of the problem is growth and profit seeking is what is steering the tech research and production. Which just leads to an endless churn of useless software and hardware updates.
Desktop OSes peeked around Windows 7. macOS hasn’t had a useful feature since dark mode. The UIs have only gone down hill with trying to force them to be mobile friendly and flat.
The iPhone peeked around iPhone 8/iPhone X depending on if you liked the notch/FaceID or not. I’ve seen no useful features since.
Companies must make “progress” each year by releasing worse user hostile software updates and force device upgrades through planned obsolescence.