[wwweston]

> in fact computers don't work very well and users encounter errors on a regular basis. Using computers is a skill. It takes study.

I think what's been lost -- or perhaps never been gained -- is an art of dual tiering error condition messaging.

Highest visibility messaging should be the simple & for the most general audience: "You Gave us Bad Information, here's how to fix it" for cases where that applies, with more information available for training users if they want it.

When it's an application or systems failure: "Something went wrong on our end, not your fault" should be the high visibility message. Then maybe "here's a request ID, you can contact this support channel about it if the problem persists". Then somewhere low visibility "here's some detail about what's going on under the hood if you want to look."

This is part of a general sin in product / UX as far as I can tell: the "don't make me think" mantra became something itself people stopped thinking about and transformed effectively into "don't LET me think."