jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I think in some ways Generative AI is very emblematic of the current state of software development. Projects are approached from the outset with the driving question being, “how can we make money materialize out of thin air?” Not, “What kind of problems are we trying to solve?” Or, “Why would someone pay for this?”
The last several projects I’ve worked on have been solutions in search of a problem. Hyped up products that made executives see dollar signs but didn’t actually produce any because they failed to provide any tangible value.
jj4211@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Comment resonates with my experience.
Software project at work recently:
We are going to launch a new offering to improve experience for customers.
Ok, how?
We are going to switch it to cloud model and charge annually instead of perpetual.
Ok, that’s for us, what about customer?
We are going to analyse their accounts and present them with suggestions on other of our products and addons they haven’t bought yet.
Where the customer improvement?
We are going to discontinue supporting third party products and focus exclusively on customers that buy only from us.
Ok, but we have support for third party products we don’t even compete with?
We are going to exclude those too, to focus on the market that is important.
Ok, but at least you’re going to provide equivalent capability as the product you are replacing?
We are going to streamline the experience by offering only the core capabilities and discontinue extraneous features.
You are at least