Death by 1000 cuts, it’s an apt expression in today’s software world. I’m a user, and I create software. In a single day, I encounter numerous bugs and annoyances. It’s not fair to subject people to frustration and suffering. Let’s ruminate on the subject of software quality.
The Apocalypse
Some people say that mounting software problems are a sign of the impending apocalypse. Once I realized they were right, I wanted to save and share the message, but even that wasn’t possible.
It’s not just bugs causing issues but annoyances like having your cursor stolen from you. Unfortunately, someone thought their app was more important than what you were doing, and the operating system allows a developer to hijack your experience.
Some people have ideas for solutions, but solving those problems will require a scorched-earth approach. We need to adopt new platforms that will limit the lines of code between clicking a file and saving it. If we don’t do that, software developers will continue to ruin user experiences.
Change is Hard
Unfortunately, people dislike change. People still use the Bulletin Board Systems of yore. The only way to entice people to change is to create better user experiences.
People believe their operating system is flawless, but they are kidding themselves. Every operating system has bugs, and every operating system annoys users daily. To improve user experiences, software development and platforms must be redesigned with stability as a core principle.
Luckily, change is possible. New systems will sprout up and replace the wasteland of broken user experiences. It’s inevitable.
It’s A Battlefield
While writing this article, I have run into several software problems. I’m typing these words, and LinkedIn decided that putting zero padding below the text was a great design decision. When pasting in some text from another web page, the formatting was kept intact, and the whole paragraph went bold.
I just pressed enter after inserting that image, and my cursor was underneath the download dialog. It doesn’t take long to realize you’re trapped in hell.
Love & Technology
I love my wife; she does not love technology. I love using software to improve productivity, and we started using Evernote. Evernote has been around since 2008. I would have hoped that 11 years would be enough time to iron out the bugs, but my hopes were shattered.
I shared a notebook with my wife, so I grabbed her phone to verify it worked. I spent over ten minutes doing this because someone decided they would not push an invite to devices but instead require synchronization. Why?!
More Empathy?
I don’t know the answer to this madness. I do know I don’t particularly appreciate living in it.
Humans have blind spots when understanding their shared experiences. If we spend ample time thinking about how we can improve each other’s experiences, maybe we can solve our technology problems as human problems.
<ul>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2019/12/13/software-documentation-deadly-cut-1/"></a><a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2019/11/09/death-by-1000-cuts/">DEATH BY 1000 CUTS</a>
</li>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/01/01/software-reliability-deadly-cut-2/"></a><a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2019/12/13/software-documentation-deadly-cut-1/">SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION GAPS – DEADLY CUT ⓵</a>
</li>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/03/13/the-blame-game-deadly-cut-3/"></a><a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/01/01/software-reliability-deadly-cut-2/">SOFTWARE RELIABILITY – DEADLY CUT ⓶</a>
</li>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/04/12/date-driven-development-deadly-cut-4/"></a><a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/03/13/the-blame-game-deadly-cut-3/">THE BLAME GAME – DEADLY CUT ⓷</a>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2020/04/12/date-driven-development-deadly-cut-4/" class="ek-link">DATE DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT – DEADLY CUT ⓸</a>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2021/05/19/technology-know-it-alls-deadly-cut-5/">TECHNOLOGY KNOW-IT-ALLS – DEADLY CUT ⓹</a>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2021/10/10/missing-context-deadly-cut-6/">MISSING CONTEXT - DEADLY CUT ⓺</a>
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<a href="https://wordpress.jeffbailey.us/blog/2021/10/24/information-paywalls-deadly-cut-7/">INFORMATION PAYWALLS - DEADLY CUT ⓻</a>
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P.S.
Check out my article on migrating from Evernote to Joplin if you’re a frustrated Evernote user.