As a devtools expert, one of my stronger beliefs around devtools is forbearance: you don't want to give people the ability to do everything they want. Sometimes you have to make a judgment call and decide that what people want is going to be bad for them
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As a devtools expert, one of my stronger beliefs around devtools is forbearance: you don't want to give people the ability to do everything they want. Sometimes you have to make a judgment call and decide that what people want is going to be bad for them
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There are several git features, including submodules and assume-unchanged, that fall into this bucket. People think they want those features but don't really, and their existence has detrimental effects on the community. You have to withhold features like these for the benefit of the community
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And to be clear, often the user is right and there is a real need. sometimes the user has a real need but the solution they're proposing might make things worse down the road. sometimes users have a need but solving it would have too many negative externalities on everyone else. and sometimes users are just wrong
Expertise at building devtools means approaching these situations with empathy balanced with foresight, and getting better at distinguishing these cases
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Wez Furlong :terminal:replied to rain 🌦️ last edited by
@rain One of the things I recognized at the start of my career in software consultancy was the difference between what someone *says* that they want and what they *actually need*. Understanding the difference and conveying that difference in a way where they don't feel like you told them "no" or otherwise in an adversarial way is its own skill and is an important part of being a lead on a technical product, not just in devtools.
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Wez Furlong :terminal:replied to Wez Furlong :terminal: last edited by
@rain in devtools, one of the big problems can be summarized by the saying "doctors make the worst patients". Software engineers/programmers are the worst customer of a software product because they think they know and understand everything of relevance, when in reality they lack key domain experience/knowledge. Their influence and confidence (just a quick PR to add a feature for a power user...) can lead to those "bad" features that are then very difficult to unpick and put "right".
