House of Eratosthenes

I’m liking what I’m reading here. Still lots of room remaining for a possible enormous disappointment regarding Windows 7. But this seems to me, at first blush, a heartily sensible way to design an operating system. And, pleasingly, it’s not the Microsoft I’ve come to expect.

To design Windows 7, Microsoft analyzed billions of pieces of data. It studied exactly what PC users do in front of their screens. It tallied hundreds of thousands of Windows surveys. It got feedback from people all over the world who tried different versions of the software.

As a result, every change or new feature in Windows 7 comes with a back story. Here is a sampling of things you’ll see in the next operating system and explanations of how each came about.

What I like here is the presumption that, without a formal study process put in place and then vigorously pursued, Microsoft does not know its user community. And that’s not a slam against Microsoft (although it’s true, by-and-large). It’s just true of all intellectual pursuits: You need to maintain an accurate assessment about what you do & don’t know. And err on the side of acknowledging your limitations.

I’ve been a professional computer geek for twenty-one years now…most of it in software development…and if there is one thing I’ve learned in all that time, it is this. There is a reason why the truly talented software engineers have a reputation for possessing crappy communication skills. And it’s not the reason people expect.

The reason is, this stuff we call “excellent communication skills” get in the way. Think about what they are. They are empathy. And empathy is — talent in conveying and receiving ideas informally. Mental telepathy, body language, chats by the water cooler, whatever ya gotta do.

Over the short term this seems like a wonderful deal. Generically intelligent people working together cohesively: Who can possibly criticize that? But over the long term it hurts, and it hurts a lot. Documentation ends up not being written. I’m not talking user manuals. I’m talking about internal specs…and when internal specs don’t get written, people feel like they can modify stuff when it suits them. The result of this is that the new Module A worked fine, but ended up in the trash heap because it depended on Module B and Module B didn’t hold still. Testing ends up being done inconsistently, and then people don’t want to admit it happened. There was no test-script, you see. Two guys who worked together so well and made such a great team, implicitly understood what “Does It Work?” meant. The criteria weren’t defined for the benefit of new team members. And the new team members did show up…count on that…because fewer questions are asked with greater frequency than “Well, can you meet the new deadline if you have more people?”

People engage other people to get things built on by proxy, “knowing” it’ll get built a certain way, but not really knowing that at all. Generally speaking, people who are ingenious at finding these sixth-sense ways of communicating with their known peers, exude a recalcitrant resistance against writing things down. Friendships, thought to be a foundational layer to the business of getting things built, end up displacing the business of getting things built.

Worst of all, “key” people are key because they “know” the customers need this feature or that feature. When in reality, if you bother to go asking, you find out the customer hasn’t the slightest idea the feature is there, and doesn’t care about it. I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it dozens of times if I’ve seen it at all.

And Microsoft’s been a worse offender than anyone. An application or operating system becomes the de facto standard across the entire western hemisphere, and then they upgrade it. Across the time zones, millions of voices cry out in unison the same thing: “God dammit, there was a way to do this…where the hell did it go??” And…”So frustrating…I know what it is I want to do…I’m burning up the better part of an afternoon arguing with this Microsoft piece-of-crap about doing it.” And…”Chrissakes, this used to take two keystrokes, how come now it takes seven??” Answer: Microsoft assumed you were using it this way, and not that way.

And MS-Word 2007, I’m looking straight at you.

Damn, that felt good.

People engage other people to get things built on by proxy, “knowing” it’ll get built a certain way, but not really knowing that at all.

People engage other people to get things built on/ by proxy, “knowing” it’ll get built, and ASSUMING it’ll get built a certain way, but not really knowing that at all.
SEE: The Golden Triangle-quality vs. cost vs. time.

One of my favorite tee shirts says-
Do you REALLY want to know what’s wrong, or do you just want me to fix it?
SOME people say I try to explain too many BASIC variable pitfalls in my (usually futile) attempts to …teach them to fish. when they’re hungry.

Strangely, when it comes time to pay the piper, they ABRUPTLY become interested
in DEMANDING a time (mine) consuming apprenticeship-free, or tuition-free, education.

WHich relatively simple children”s fables (or allegory) touch on THAT premise?
- CaptDMO | 04/20/2009 @ 11:55
Morgan, another beauty. I think this one falls under “Effing the ineffable.”

SEE: The Golden Triangle-quality vs. cost vs. time.

Or as it’s classically said, “Better, cheaper, quicker. Pick two.”

The unthinking denial of fundamental reality would seem to have some connection to the fact that so many computer geeks are unfortunately also liberals. It’s amazing how many “engineers” fail to understand basic triage, which was memorably defined by a student of mine as “Now, later, dead.”
- rob | 04/20/2009 @ 14:01
An example of changing something that worked easily and well was the path/filename in earlier versions of Word. It could be inserted quickly and would automatically update when the file was saved by a different name or path.
Now, if one can find how to insert a path into the footnote, it doesn’t appear to update. Although, this could just be a case of too few people on the planet having figured how to do it in the latest version so that it’s never become part of the common body of knowledge.
Man, I wish I knew how to make that work.
Woody
- orwoody | 04/20/2009 @ 14:47
I’m a Mac girl, so I don’t know what you’re talking about – everything’s good and problem free in my world.
- Daphne | 04/23/2009 @ 21:19

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Un-MicrosoftlikeMonday, April 20th, 2009

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Monday, April 20th, 2009