Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I did EE in college but we mostly just used Windows because the shitty semi-proprietary SPICE simulator we had to use, and stuff like that, only supported Windows. The company that makes your embedded processor might only support Windows (and begrudgingly at that).

I think engineers using software should not be seen as an endorsement. They seem to have an incredible tolerance for bad UI.



Is it truly bad UI?

They may be locked in, which just forces things. Not an endorsement.

However, they may also be really productive with whatever it is. This could be an endorsement.

In CAD, as an example, there are often very productive interaction models that seem obtuse, or just bad to people learning the tools first time.

Often improving on first time ramp ups to competence nearly always impacts the pro user too.

Where it plays out this way, I have always thought the UI was good in that the pros can work at peak efficiency. It is hard to beat them.

Fact is the task complexity footprint is just large enough to make "good", as in simple, intuitive interfaces not possible.


You seem to be suggesting that a chunk of the hundreds of millions of people who use a UI that you don't like, secretly hate it or are forced to tolerate it. Not a position I'd personally want to argue or defend, so I'll leave it at that.


What an oddly aggressive and hostile response to such a banal observation. Yes, millions of people use software they hate, all the time, that’s wildly uncontroversial.


Its not an "observation" its someone making it up. Why are you so upset if I disagree?


Making up what? Go drop by your nearby shop. My hair styling constantly complains about management software that they use and quality of payment integration. At work I constantly hear complaints about shitty, slow IDEs. At optician store guy been complaining about inventory system.

People hate software that they're forced to use. Professionals are better at tolerating crapware, because there's usually sunk cost fallacy involved.


There are only two types of software: those that people hate and those that nobody uses (a paraphrase)


<painfully earnest nerd>

Well actually, I use FreeBSD as my daily driver (on a used ThinkPad I bought for 300 euros), and I love it. :D

</painfully earnest nerd>

okay, now you're going to tell me that FreeBSD is in the "software nobody uses" category isn't it?


This is not a reasonable way to infer the sentiment of hundreds of millions of people in different countries, different business, different situations, etc, etc.

Disguising it as an "observation" is even more ridiculous.


Indeed I’m not ready to defend it, it is just an anecdote. I expected the experience of using crappy professional software to be so universal that I wouldn’t have to.


Sure, and this is where I will ask you post a list of "good" professional software so I can google all the bugs in that software :)

Nah, I'm good. Believe what you want to believe my friend.


>They seem to have an incredible tolerance for bad UI.

Irelevant.

Firstly, it's a tool, not a social media platform designed to sell ads and farm clicks, it needs to be utilitarian and that's it, like a power drill or a pickup truck, not look pretty since they're not targeting consumers but solving a niche set of engineering problems.

Secondly, the engineers are not the ones paying for that software so their individual tolerance is irelevant since their company pays for the tools and for their tolerance to those tools, being part of the job description and the pay.

Unless you run your own business , you're not gonna turn down lucrative employment because on site they provide BOSCH tools and GM trucks while you personally prefer the UX of Makita and Toyota. If those tools' UX slows down the process and makes the project take longer it's not my problem, my job is to clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, that's it, it's the company's problem to provide the best possible tools for the job, if they can.


Do you disagree with the sentence before the one you quoted? I think we basically agree, you came up with a bunch of reasons that

> I think engineers using software should not be seen as an endorsement.


> my job is to clock in at 9 and clock out at 5

Where can I find one of those jobs?


It was figuratively. Obviously everyone has different working hours/patterns depending on job market, skill set and personal situation.

But since you asked, Google is famous for low workloads. Or Microsoft. Or any other old and large slow moving company with lots of money, like IBM, Intel, SAP, ASML, Airbus, DHL, Siemens, manufacturing, aerospace, big pharma, transportation, etc. No bootstrapped "agile" start-ups and scale-ups, or failing companies that need to compete in a race to the bottom.

Depends mostly on where you live though.


France. You'll get a two hour lunch break too.


And you will usually leave at 18:30.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: