Comment by bigfatkitten
19 hours ago
> At some point, they need to stop asking "can we add this feature?" and start asking "does this text editor need a network-aware rendering stack?"
They didn’t stop there. They also asked “does this need AI?” and came up with the wrong answer.
If I had to guess, the mandate to cram AI in everywhere came down from Nadella and the executive level with each level of management having KPIs for AI in their product all the way down. Much like the "everything has to be .NET even though nobody has any idea what .NET means" when it was first introduced and every MS product suddenly sprouted .NET at the end of their names. When executive management gives stupid non-negotiable orders, they get stupid results.
AI is useful but these management type typically don’t know how to make it useful.
That’s why they spend all their time on LinkedIn creating “7 levels of ai readiness” instead of…actually doing anything productive and useful.
Now imagine that you are someone who doesn't even think AI is useful, and imagine just how much more infuriating it is to have it crammed in. Drives me up a wall.
It is a bit odd that they basically took one of Microsoft’s most universally hated features (Clippy) and then decided “let’s put this into literally every part of the OS”.
I think they came up the the exact right answer like:
> How do I add more features to get a promotion
It’s just resumé driven development. Corporate droids gotta justify their salaries somehow. It doesn’t pay to call software “done”.
Individual developers or even developer management doesn't get much of a say in product direction at large corporations. The product management folks are who decide what features go in and when.
PMs have resumes too :)
- Successfully led key efforts to modernize aging platform technologies
- Directed integration of cutting-edge system-wide artificial intelligence functionality
Even if you talk to users, you can do it the wrong way. Big companies are incentivized by the stock market to care more about new users than existing ones because their only focus is growth. Growth can't be rooted in your existing users is a common feeling in product management circles. If you try to do things for people other than your existing users, then you end up doing odd stuff that at best is a mild annoyance. More likely you hurt their ability to continue using the app.
Exemplified by every website with a massive SIGN UP button and then a little 8 pt font log in tucked away somewhere underneath.
Gee thanks for helping me find the button I'll use literally once and making me hunt for the one I'll need the other 99999 times I use this service.
Existing users can go fuck themselves as long as new people are registering. Line go up!
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Unjustified downvoting. You absolutely have a point. Not just software, also the gazillion UI/UX designers. They keep moving things around and changing colors and fucking things up just to justify their salaries. Case in point: Google maps. It was perfect 15 years ago. We don't need vomit inducing color changes every 2 years
And yet, if they were raising a Series A, they'd be lauded as "disruptors"
By some
Some of us were impressionable when Jurassic Park came out.
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Microsoft is driving AI adoption. Why blame tge workers for this?
Why can't Indian software developers stand up for themselves and say no?
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Microsoft is comprised of its workers.
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But can it generate qrcode already?