Will OremusFolks in tech who say it's easy to criticize but hard to build... Sorry, no. It's easy to build if you don't care about the flaws or societal consequences or ripping off others' work. Any midwit sociopath can do that. The hard thing is to build something that *isn't* evil.
Darius Kazemi@willoremus Also, speaking as a builder and a critic... have these people *tried* writing useful criticism? There's a reason I put out ~1 major software project a year and ~1 major critical essay a year. They're about equally hard to do well!!
@darius Yeah, the corollary to this is that it's easy to criticize if you don't care to first understand the strengths of the thing you're criticizing, make sure your criticisms are well-grounded and well-supported, and think through what the tradeoffs might be of other approaches.
LR@willoremus indeed. i'm trying for a long time to design a kitchen knife that isn't evil, so far no success.
Lizard@lritter @willoremus "You should make it hard to abuse this software" is a reasonable goal; "You should make it impossible to abuse this" is not. Humans are very creative in their malice, and a few designers can't compete with a million sociopaths.
Amy (she/her)@LizardSF @lritter @willoremus The problem is that a lot of people seem to think trying to do the former is the latter, and just don't even bother. They make no effort to push past their own biases and blow off user feedback that's asking them to do the former.
Perfect the the enemy to getting things done, but not even trying for better because it can't be perfect is just as bad, if not worse.
Escarpment@willoremus Also, there is an inherent fallacy with this line of attacking critics. The critic's position as a critic is irrelevant to the validity of their criticism. It's just another form of ad hominem attack. "Oh yeah, you try it" is pretty much just an ad hominem. Probably better for sensitive builders to dispute the criticisms on their merits, not on their source.
Luna Corbden@willoremus and it’s very hard to criticize when you know there’s a good chance you’ll be mocked/bullied/harassed/shunned for it.
Virginia MurrThis message is such a great example of why I'm glad you do what you do ... and that you're here.
melanie ensign (she/her)@willoremus it’s not hard to build something that isn’t evil if you don’t wait until you’ve already built something that is.
Nuke the Luke@willoremus One way to spot the lie is to ask them what they think about critics like @Csik who criticize *by* building things. E.g.: https://www.edgyproduct.org/probots
Aral Balkan
BillStewart415@willoremus In particular, most projects need diverse teams, because monoculture teams are going to miss a huge amount of potential abuse and threats that can be done, simply because those attacks wouldn't occur to them.
Utopiah (Fabien Benetou)@willoremus I don't think it's hard to build something that isn't evil. What might be though if one is expecting rewards, e.g fame or wealth, for a system that promotes evilness. But if one is privileged enough, maybe through that very system, not to look for these then I think it's not that hard.
@willoremus I (a programmer and a critic) feel compelled to note that merely because it's easier to note flaws than to fix them, doesn't mean the flaws don't exist. I can't cook a gourmet meal, but I can tell (barring edge cases where the cuisine is very unfamiliar) if it's done poorly.
@willoremus /2
If a user notes something in a program I wrote is not working, I *generally* can't say "OK, it's not calculating this right, but, man, that code was written over two decades with modules in four languages, you can just add 12 mentally, it's too much work." Not if I want to keep my job.
When the issue is social problems, there often isn't a perfect fix, because humans. That's not an excuse to not keep iterating to get progressively better.
@willoremus /3 At the same time, demanding perfection when dealing with social issues in tech is also a problem. The entire human species not only hasn't solved these issues, we disagree violently (literally) on what the issues *are* and what "solving" them actually is.
We, humans, create in our own image.
*The* Paul BrownMaybe not so much "hard to build sth that isn't evil", more like "unprofitable". This says quite a bit about our current societal system.
BeegyPsiWhat??? It's hard to build something that isn't evil??
Strange view of builders, creators and inventors... but, OK.
Jiva DeVoe@willoremus then why don’t you build it? Not trying to be inflammatory, sincere question. if you think that you can do better and solve the problems better than they do , you should try. maybe you’ll win.
akareilly@willoremus it’s wild that there are people who will dismiss the whole discipline of user research because it’s not a coding job.
Word of Mouth 
@willoremus
Technically both are hard. Building something not evil is just hard-ER. By a lot.
@going_to_maine
Technically both are hard. Building something not evil is just hard-ER. By a lot.
@going_to_maine
Going T. Maine
Jawshybuns@willoremus pro tip, build a fart machine.
jakobdorof@willoremus post-2016 that’s increasingly true of art too, sadly
Craig DanzI invite you to check out www.vestigette.org then. Something I hope isn’t evil.