[scott_w]

> I'm clearly not alone with my opinion (see original post),

I recall seeing the same thing being said in the 2000s on Slashdot, so "software is shit now" is an opinion that's not new.

> and you're trying to undermine your opponents' credibility by getting ad-hominem and pointing out that their position lacks the kind of research

All I'm saying is that this popular position of "software used to be so much better" has strong "kids today" vibes.

> which you yourself did not provide either.

I'm not the one saying an entire industry has forgotten how to do our jobs.

[stakhanov]

...because I happened to come across it in my bookmarks just now, there's an article by Don Norman [1] that made the HN frontpage somewhat recently [2] sharing my pessimistic view about usability today. Admittedly, he has a conflict of interest, making money by telling people how bad their UIs are and how to make them better. But he definitely is very respected, and, in my opinion, deservedly so.

> [...] strong "kids today" vibes. [...] entire industry has forgotten how to do our jobs.

The OP seemed to be pessimistic, your initial point was "It was pretty bad in the mid-90s, and it's no worse today" which is really not very optimistic either, and my point was "Well, it was bad in the mid-90s, then got better, then got worse again". So, FWIW, I think that my point was actually somewhat more nuanced than the pessimistic context. I was also expressing optimism towards certain technologies while expressing pessimism towards others.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90338379/i-wrote-the-book-on-use...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37902412

[scott_w]

> your initial point was "It was pretty bad in the mid-90s, and it's no worse today" which is really not very optimistic either,

Partially but I suspect things are better than everyone keeps saying. The whole "it used to be better" is a meme I see in all walks of life and I want to see something to prove it beyond a bunch of opinions.

Do I think some things are worse? Yeah, probably, such is the way of life. Do I think the entire industry went to shit? That's something that even the most respected people will need to provide evidence for. It seems a bit strange that I somehow joined the industry in 2010 and spent my entire career getting shitter and shitter.