[bem94]

I couldn't agree more. Engineers are often so far (physically and metaphorically) from the actual impact of what they work on, it can be really easy to miss the damage it does.

People who work for Facebook must have to work very hard to remember the people they are experimenting on are people, not just "users", and that they don't have cart-blanch with how they treat them. Especially if they are building addiction into their service!

Also, Weapons of Math Destruction is a fantastic book.

[Zelphyr]

I heard a guy say once in a talk, "There are only two groups that call their customers 'users': Drug Dealers and Software Developers."