For a long while now I’ve noticed a very common recurring problem that seems to predominant as a frequent cause of both inhibited creativity and poor outcomes. Specifically, I am referring to the widespread tendency in many fields of study (but especially in computer programming and other technical fields) to focus so much on trying to ensure that every slightest fence-post issue is fully handled in all conceivable cases that it greatly impedes one’s creative and intellectual flow and in effect gives oneself tunnel vision. Such circumstances also often seem to tend to suck the fun out of projects and contribute to burn out as well.
I think this is actually also connected in some way to the moderately common prevalence of a certain kind of dismissiveness towards simple user interface problems that are easy to improve but nonetheless unfortunately neglected. All too often there will be some trivial aspect of how a piece of software (or other interface to something) works which if improved or corrected would yield a great improvement in value, and this could often actually clearly be done easily, but the developers or engineers responsible (or other members of the surrounding community) are dismissive of such things being problems at all.
For example, finding the “download page” on a specific site may be abnormally difficult to accomplish (e.g. for “Releases” on GitHub currently, as one real example) and a user may even report that problem at length and attach a screenshot and detailed exposition explaining why it is so hard to find, and yet still the software developers in all too many cases will be completely dismissive of this. Yet, it is exactly these kinds of most basic interface design and communication issues that often are the biggest deciding factors in user retention and in the pleasantness and practicality of a piece of software or of any other device or creative work for that matter.
Good communication and good empathy for your audience is extremely important. The most basic functional things about a user interface are often the most import and most valuable aspects of any software, and yet all too often these things are treated the most dismissively. I find that strange.
The reason why this is connected to fence-post issues I think is because in a very similar way many software developers (or other members of society) too often get sucked into a fixation on merely a laundry list of what is technically in a system, whereas it is often more useful to take a more pragmatic and big-picture view. Basically, all the above mentioned things are symptoms of a sub-optimally weighted way of framing one’s own attention, and so these things really come from the same underlying source in a person’s attitude and way of viewing the world I think.
Someone may say that there’s some mathematical or computational proof that some specific feature is “undecidable” or can’t be implemented (for example), but a 90% solution to exactly that problem could provide almost all of the value the user actually wants and could easily be quite doable or even easy. So, fixating on the most extreme fence-post aspects of the associated theory in that case is a symptom of poor empathy for the user I think.
Similarly, one can see the same kind of lack of empathy for the user’s perspective in the example of developers being dismissive of a user who has trouble finding even something as basic and essential as the “download page” for some software. In both cases, the recurring theme is an absence of empathy for the user and perhaps even a kind of techno-elitism where the difficulty of a way of doing something is seen as a point of pride subconsciously instead of simply as what it really is: an obvious impediment to genuine value creation and to care for other human beings.
So, ultimately, what I’m saying (I suppose) is that we should all remember to be kind to our users as much as we can and to truly consider their perspective and not be dismissive of their concerns and impediments! You can’t go wrong like that! 😁
Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading my random thought of the day!
PS: Sorry for not posting for a long while. I sometimes get sucked down rabbit holes, but always come out of them eventually. Have a great week/weekend! 🏞🎊