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Beyond enshittification, why does tech oftentimes suck? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Hammocks4All@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Sometimes I’ll run into a baffling issue with a tech product — be it headphones, Google apps like maps or its search features, Apple products, Spotify, other apps, and so on — and when I look for solutions online I sometimes discover this has been an issue for years. Sometimes for many many years.

These tech companies are sometimes ENORMOUS. How is it that these issues persist? Why do some things end up being so inefficient, unintuitive, or clunky? Why do I catch myself saying “oh my dear fucking lord” under my breath so often when I use tech?

Are there no employees who check forums? Does the architecture become so huge and messy that something seemingly simple is actually super hard to fix? Do these companies not have teams that test this stuff?

Why is it so pervasive? And why does some of it seem to be ignored for literal years? Sometimes even a decade!

Is it all due to enshittification? Do they trap us in as users and then stop giving a shit? Or is there more to it than that?

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[–] smallpatatas@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

I mostly agree - however there are physical/mechanical reasons behind the use of some of those. For example, Phillips head screws will 'cam out' (driver will slip out of the screw head) rather than get over-torqued, which is useful in various situations - although TIL this was not actually an intentional design feature!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam_out

Hex keys are better than a Robertson (square head) in tight spaces with something like an Allan key, and, in my experience anyway, Robertson can take a fair bit of torque, so they're great for sinking into softwood - and also for getting out again, even when they've been painted over.

Flathead screws, on the other hand, should launched into the sun