Random Technology Ramblings

Some one from the office passed around and I thought it was too funny not to pass along.

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

– Rick Cook

While it may be a hard to call some people (or your customer) an idiot as we make software easer to use less and less “sophisticated” people will try to use it. You can see this with Netflix they have made it so easy for people to use there service “Watch Instantly” feature that people who don’t understand how to set there XBOX, Wii etc. are trying to use it. I would like to see the numbers around there support calls I would bet dollars to doughnuts the questions have gotten less and less technical over the years.

So the question is should we as software developers not try to make our products more and more “idiot-proof”? The answer is for sure no the more friendly we make our applications work the larger the potential audience for your product. Yes you will have to deal with more and more less sophisticated customers but the market size will make it all worth it.

But yes I still feel the pain of this quote 😉