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   Dana Fried (tess@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Nov-2025 05:48:28 JST Dana Fried

   Some helpful advice for all you software devs:

   - You cannot solve social problems with code

   - You cannot improve a system until you understand why it works the way it does

   - You cannot produce tools for someone else without understanding how they work and what they are trying to accomplish

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: and Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Richard Rathe (nickrauchen@c.im)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Nov-2025 12:02:48 JST Richard Rathe

     in reply to

     @tess

     Nice!

     Reminds me of this quote: "A major problem occurs when those who suffer from technology's deficits and those who benefit are not the same people." -- Donald Norman

   • Embed this notice
     Dana Fried (tess@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:05:51 JST Dana Fried

     in reply to

     (these are all actually the same advice)

   • Embed this notice
     The Penguin of Evil (etchedpixels@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:14:30 JST The Penguin of Evil

     in reply to

     @tess Also you can improve a system without really understanding how it works. You do it every time you read a book and learn something. Indeed Ashby's law says you can never understand yourself - yet self improvement is possible

     You can design effective systems when you don't know how people will use them It's harder and requires expertise. However the statement is mostly a misunderstanding. Systems evolve and the software design, implement, deploy, run away model is what is broken

   • Embed this notice
     stf (stf@chaos.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:17:56 JST stf

     in reply to

     @tess

     Some helpful advice for all you software devs:

     - you can cause social problems with code
     - you can degrade the system if you don't understand how or why it works
     - you can produce obstructions for someone else without understanding how they work or what they are doing.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:19:21 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @tess Wow, the number of mediocre reply guys thinking they're smart being contrarian... 🤦

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:22:13 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • The Penguin of Evil

     @etchedpixels @tess 🙄 is that really the hill you want to die on being wrong about?

     Software/systems development is not writing code. Code is utterly boring. The actual work is collecting the understanding of needs the system is intended to meet and writing that down in a precise form.

     Maybe next time don't try to be a pedant mansplaining stuff you didn't actually think about trying to sound smarter than the person who did.