Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pdkl95 2792 days ago
This kind of apology for a problematic change misses how allowing small changes eventually normalizes the change[1], allowing another similarly "small" step to be taken in the future. Today it's "just the sign-in page"; tomorrow it will expand to cover something else because "it's already something you're used to using on the sign-in page".

It's rare for major changes to arrive all at once. Small steps are taken, with each eventually becoming the new normal that allows another small step to be taken[2]. This isn't always intentional - each small step can seem rational at the time, in isolation.

[any replies complaining about "slippery slopes" will be ignored; the normalization of deviance does not mean change necessarily will follow, just that normalizing incremental changes allows people to support changes without noticing the larger picture]

[1] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professionalism/Diane_Vaughan_...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window