[kerblang]

In all fairness, the classical "dev from hell" who views users with contempt is not a new phenomenon, and just putting my own thumb in the wind it's less common now than a couple decades ago; modern programmers seem to find it easier to recognize that blaming the user for a problem does nothing to fix the problem. I always hated those blame-the-user/customer types.

But devs have a lot less authority in the modern corporate bureaucracy, and what I think of as "the product people" are the source of not so much contempt, but just a lack of interest in practical, useful outcomes. Product "vision" is harder than it looks, and in my mind, that product vision is the singular most important job in the whole dang world. When vision succeeds, it's often coming from customer-obsessed, fully committed founder types. When it fails, it's often coming from bureaucratic functionaries who care about titles and politics and other insider nonsense. Add in a dismissive wave of the hand to devs who complain "But this doesn't make any sense!" and you've got a recipe for slow death.