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xkcd #1172: Workflow (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Jakylla@sh.itjust.works to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

Title text: There are probably children out there holding down spacebar to stay warm in the winter! YOUR UPDATE MURDERS CHILDREN.


Transcript[Changelog for version 10.17 of a piece of software.]

One change listed: "The CPU no longer overheats when you hold down the spacebar"
Comments: LongtimeUser4 writes: This update broke my workflow! My control key is hard to reach, so I hold spacebar instead, and I configured Emacs to interpret a rapid temperature rise as "control".
Admin writes: That's horrifying.
LongtimeUser4 writes: Look, my setup works for me. Just add an option to reenable spacebar heating.

Every change breaks someone's workflow.


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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 64 points 1 year ago

Sounds awfully familiar. One of our customer wanted a very specific option our system does not provide - because it makes no sense at all. But instead that the customer discusses what is good and what is not, based on our >40 years of international experience in the field, we just got a bunch of drawings telling me that I should do something in the way a political committee with no professional input had decided.

Customer pays for it, customer gets it. Fun fact: I know they will get sick of what they cooked up in no time, so I already installed a "kill switch". As soon as they get sick of their stupid idea, I can reverse it with a single option. Bossman says to take the same amount of money for switching it back, and he knows they will pay.

[-] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

What's the option, if you don't mind me asking?

[-] sergih123@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Is there a remindme bot or smt? hahaha

[-] lieuwex@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

I saw somebody mention that you can use a mastodon remind me bot on lemmy just fine. But I don't remember what the name of the bot was.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Wow, that sounds great. Hopefully someone remembers the name soon.

@remindme@mstdn.social 1 hour

@sergih123@lemmy.world

[-] remindme@mstdn.social 2 points 1 year ago

@can Here is your reminder!

[-] remindme@mstdn.social 1 points 1 year ago

@can Ok, I will remind you on Thursday Aug 3, 2023 at 1:23 PM PDT.

[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Counterpoint: devs frequently downplay user's needs and inflate the importance of their own ideas, and because they're often in an echo chamber of their own team's environment, they never hear meaningful kickback from anyone they respect (because they certainly don't respect users).

Then they share this comic back forth literally every time users complain.

Someone, in the slack channels of reddit's devs, shared this exact comic with this exact attitude because of the backlash. And it was met with the same approval as the comments here.

[-] Ape550@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

This is it exactly. Was a product manager and this is exactly the issue I faced with devs that had no real world usage experience.

[-] PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

People often forget the value in field verifying and it drives me insane.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wh have met with the users who use our product. But they don't seem very able to articulate what it is they actually want or need from the system. It's always vague ideas and nothing actionable.

Them: Oh we need to be able to find customers even if they can't remember their account number.
Us: Yes but you can, just enter the company name.

This is usually met with either a vague "yeah" or "no not like that", and then they never elaborate.

Our users are literially the most irritating people on earth

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I met a user for a tool I built at work. It was the worst.

[-] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Nah. I'm pretty sure they're mad too. They just can't really do anything against it since it's not their decision

[-] malloc@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Sounds like a future forever paid customer to me. Want overheating back? Pay $4.99 per month in perpetuity and ongoing maintenance costs lol.

[-] AdmiralShat@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

The more subscription models there are, the more people there are creating cracks for subscriptions

[-] OtakuAltair@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

War drives innovation

[-] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Aren't there situations where you can't crack something? Constant requests to home server and stuff.

[-] __dev@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Anything running on your computer can be cracked; that's simply the nature of being in control of your device. (Web) Apps where the important stuff runs on a server can't be cracked because there isn't any DRM in the first place.

[-] Locorock@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

you do realize you can't "crack" maintenance right?

[-] AdmiralShat@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

As personal, individual user, who gives a shit? I'll just wait until a large enough gap between my version and the current version is there to warrent getting a more updated cracked version

I used an outdated version of photoshop for years.

If you NEED regular maintenance builds, it's probably for enterprise, in which case you open yourself up to a whole lot of legal bullshit by making money using pirated software in the first place.

[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Minecraft players when an update changes something thats been a certain way from the beginning.

[-] DarkenLM@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

That's the reason quasi connectivity exists.

[-] reddithalation@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

you bet im still on 1.8 for the combat, lol

[-] Sigh_Bafanada@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You bet I'm still on beta 1.8 for that machine gun bow combat

[-] Jakylla@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

"Mods was a bug, now it's fixed, no more hacking the game, users will be able to play as intended."

[-] XEAL@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

And this is why I don't update my installed Python modules fequently...

[-] tal@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Emacs itself is actually impressively good at not breaking workflows, given how configurable the package is.

[-] SkyeHarith@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Other software: Don’t like this change? Go fork yourself.

Open Source software: Don’t like this change? Go fork it yourself.

Emacs: What do you mean you don’t like this change? You wrote the Elisp for the package yourself.

[-] UltiemeBanaan@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago
[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Not in my experience. The three most dangerous things in the world are:

  • A programmer with a soldering iron.
  • An HVAC tech with a software patch.
  • A user with an idea.
[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"So I've been thinking..."

"Well that's dangerous!"

[-] ShadedCosmos@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Haha as a programmer who has worked on a handful of soldering projects this is so true.

[-] Still@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

I should put down the soldering iron I guess

would make my electronics projects less horrible

[-] And009@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

What about the designer... Can they program

[-] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. Usually not really

This is why most open source projects are ugly

[-] Cabrio@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

One sentence horror story:

Full-stack developer.

[-] Delta_44@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

What if I'm a bit of both?

[-] thesprongler@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I recently had a user claim the upgrade from office 2019 to 365 broke her laptop screen.

[-] crashoverride@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago

god I fuckin hate corporate buzzwords

this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
564 points (98.3% liked)

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