8/17/2026 at 3:03:32 PM
I recently discovered that you need to have Siri enabled for Apple CarPlay. I expect we're going to see a lot of this where when you disable the AI functionality the devs won't have put in fallback states and you'll be effectively locked out. With CarPlay for instance there is no reason that I shouldn't be able to listen to my music or use the map without Siri. But things like responding to texts does rely on Siri, so just gate that piece. It is rather unfortunate.by dinkleberg
8/17/2026 at 6:24:05 PM
I had a similar experience when I tried to search through reviews on amazon on the mobile website.The search box is gone and you're supposed to ask Rufus now.
by MoreQARespect
8/17/2026 at 7:52:48 PM
> you're supposed to ask Rufus now
completely off-topic but the names they give these dumb ai tools is so cringe
by andrekandre
8/17/2026 at 10:18:49 PM
What would you call it?by fragmede
8/17/2026 at 10:27:57 PM
Useless. I would call it useless.by gesis
8/18/2026 at 2:39:20 AM
Dufus is how it automatically maps when I say it out loud.by mancerayder
8/17/2026 at 11:23:16 PM
[flagged]by BeetleB
8/18/2026 at 12:39:35 AM
That’s an awfully persnickety correction attempt for someone that replaced an opening capital letter and period with parentheses. That’s far more grammatically lax than using slang.by DrewADesign
8/18/2026 at 2:42:28 AM
Americans and especially corporate culture America likes to do this all the time: The ask instead of request is an example. I just politely use the words I prefer when that happens.Our new promotes for this year. etc.
I read from a linguistic source that it's a feature of English and the Brits do it as well.
by mancerayder
8/18/2026 at 12:41:58 AM
Oxford dictionary lists cringe as adjective.Cambridge dictionary lists cringe as adjective.
Merriam-Webster lists cringe as adjective.
Might need to update your understanding.
by lpribis
8/18/2026 at 12:56:56 AM
> Merriam-Webster lists cringe as adjective.MW has it as slang. Cambridge has it as informal. OED I don't have access to.
by BeetleB
8/18/2026 at 1:03:27 AM
Slang and informal words exist, yes.by HeatrayEnjoyer
8/18/2026 at 2:59:24 AM
It’s shorthand for “makes you cringe” :shrug:by catlifeonmars
8/18/2026 at 1:52:37 AM
Verbing weirds language.by taneq
8/18/2026 at 2:15:15 AM
It's the renounification that really bugs people.by dsr_
8/17/2026 at 11:54:59 PM
(English doesn’t work like that people use cringe as an adjective therefore it is one, it’s an extremely flexible language.)by jamiek88
8/18/2026 at 12:15:40 AM
(Flexible also allows for criticism of extant usages.)by BeetleB
8/18/2026 at 12:24:07 AM
(Yes but that wasn’t criticism it was attempting to incorrectly correct.)We’ve nested enough folks haha.
by jamiek88
8/18/2026 at 1:04:26 AM
It is both.by HeatrayEnjoyer
8/18/2026 at 2:21:37 PM
You know what the solution is, don't you? You need to stop using your phone for things. At least as much as you can. Apple or Google are going to build the device that makes sense for them. If you get comfortable, or find a workaround, they will change things in the future -- in their favor, and against your interests.You have other options right now: use an aux cable, play music over bluetooth, listen to the radio, purchase $30 MP3 player, pay attention to your thoughts rather than music, etc.
by everdrive
8/17/2026 at 7:26:17 PM
Spotify on CarPlay is absolutely miserable because of this.No search, no album or artist pages, only “ask Siri”. I’m not even mad that there’s no keyboard, I will happily use voice dictation instead. Instead, what you get is essentially an “I’m feeling lucky” button that fails unless you want to listen to a specific playlist.
by drdexebtjl
8/18/2026 at 7:46:07 AM
I agree it works terrible. If I say "I want hear album X from artist Y" it replies with "Here is 'This is Y' playlist", or worse "This is Z by D". This is especially annoying if I drive with someone who requests music. Eventually, I always end up pulling up my phone at the stopping lights. Kind of makes me miss the Old Ways (CD player, or AUX in).by wayne-werwolf
8/17/2026 at 3:18:24 PM
I was very upset about this. I had a rental car and I needed to enter on the map where I wanted to go. Even with a damn keyboard it wanted Siri. It’s just gps and i had to dig my phone out and do the typing there instead.by goalieca
8/18/2026 at 10:32:06 AM
This only happens (should happen?) when you're moving, when stationary there is a keyboard that appears; which feels like a reasonable safety precaution for me.by klausa
8/18/2026 at 11:24:40 AM
That's why I'm all for appliances. Stuff should just shut up and have buttons all these arguments with hardware are getting very tiring.by jacquesm
8/17/2026 at 7:39:00 PM
Yes, the "okay if you want to disable AI, we're going to remove non-AI features" paradigm that Gmail is also doing.by thejosh
8/17/2026 at 5:09:55 PM
I used CarPlay yesterday with Siri disabled. Am I missing something?by JackFr
8/17/2026 at 7:38:14 PM
I don't understand why anyone likes CarPlay. It has always seemed like people like it because it's better than nothing. It's just not a good system in an objective sense.by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 8:17:07 PM
CarPlay and Android Auto aren't popular because they're good, per se. They're popular because they're good enough compared to the status quo ante, which was a sea of craptastic infotainment systems.by 10000truths
8/17/2026 at 10:32:18 PM
[dead]by cindyllm
8/17/2026 at 7:45:56 PM
What does “not a good system in an objective sense” even mean? In what objective measures do you see it fail in?I and basically everyone I know love it because it and android auto are made by actual UI/UX designers that aren’t embedded systems engineers- resulting in an infotainment screen that isn’t a complete and utter piece of shit, and has actual functionality. I use my phone for everything in my car anyways, especially navigation, which historically is not included in a cars infotainment system without subscription and/or vendor lock. In that one singular regard, CarPlay is literally infinity percent better than every single built in infotainment system, because I can use my fucking cars built in screen instead of my tiny phone display to navigate using software that is infinitely more well made than whatever shit is on my cars native system (a brief note: my angry tone is not directed at you or your lack of agreement with my opinion, but at how awful I perceived the car infotainment systems of yore to be. God they were useless.)
For every objective measure I can come up with in my head and not type out, it passes with flying colors compared to the alternative- so I’d love to know where your perception differs.
by starkrights
8/17/2026 at 8:43:53 PM
My old car was a Toyota Rav4 2001 and my only usage of the infotainment system was to play music and get directions from google map (voice via bluetooth). I think the only controls I used on the head unit was the volume knob and the call button (to receive a call). I've never needed anything else.This is not a counterpoint to your argument. It's more a context about the following question: Is the infotainment on a car actually useful?
by skydhash
8/18/2026 at 2:23:59 AM
No. The ideal infotainment "system" should be a volume knob, the minimum interface to get a secure connection, and a good modular tilt-and-swivel holder for a phone with obvious cable routing for a power cable and optional wireless charging.Vehicles should be designed to last ten years so that the resale market can support the ridiculous prices for new. The infotainment system is the only part that is subject to external technological compatibility issues over that timespan.
by dsr_
8/18/2026 at 11:49:43 AM
Carplay is sort of interesting because the UI does generally suck less than the UI of most infotainment systems. But it is much worse than my phone UI. Various apps seem to be missing their search abilities entirely.It isn’t as bad as most built-in over developed systems, but it has not quite reached the perfection of a cheap phone mount and a car that is dumb enough to act as a Bluetooth speaker.
by bee_rider
8/17/2026 at 7:51:30 PM
See how defensive people get about CarPlay? Why so emotionally invested? It's buggy and sucks when you are driving someone else's car or a rental. You proved my point too, which is that it's liked because it's better than everything else, not because it's objectively good.by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 8:56:04 PM
“I don’t understand why people love it so much” and “the system has friction that could be improved” are two extremely different statements with vastly different communications.While it may be constructive to point out and discuss that, hey CarPlay has deficiencies and really could stand to be improved in XYZ way, vaguely gesturing at CarPlay and saying “I don’t get why people love this so much” and tacitly implying they’re wrong or stupid for doing so, is just unhelpful.
If you’d have started the whole conversation with “I get why people appreciate the improvement, but CarPlay still sucks because it doesn’t work well in vehicles you don’t own”, we’d be having an entirely different conversation right now, actually discussing and commiserating the downsides and technical limitations that Apple should definitely fix.
But alas, the message implied by “why do people like this if it’s objectively bad”, is that said people are stupid- not that we should do it. And “objectively bad” is also super broad, and dismissive of the all of the things that a lot of people probably consider objectively good, like the decoupling of updates from auto manufacturers, and some of the UI/UX behavior hereto undescribed.
I wasn’t so much fervently defending “my baby” as I was: explaining “why people love it so much”, which was the question asked; bitching about the systems of yesteryear because they sucked ass more notably than CarPlay does, at least imo; and objecting to the premise of your discussion hook for being vague and (very mildly) inflammatory.
Your response is also inflammatory. Id have loved to complain about the downsides of CarPlay and where it fails, but you basically just called me a whiny fanboy for, at the core of my response, objecting to a contentless question.
by starkrights
8/17/2026 at 9:04:26 PM
He's basically _wrong_ about it being bad in cars you don't own, too.It could definitely be better; but given a choice of figuring out how to pair AA/CP in a rental car, or working with the built-in nav (which has no idea about my schedule, locations, etc)... I _always_ select pairing AA/CP.
by pifgoe
8/17/2026 at 9:08:43 PM
It's so bad I don't pair it at all and crank the volume all the way up and hope for the best.by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 9:11:48 PM
[flagged]by pifgoe
8/17/2026 at 10:01:21 PM
I think that's projection.by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 10:30:23 PM
I can't imagine being so guileless that I'd create a account just to be shitty to people.by fragmede
8/17/2026 at 9:00:43 PM
See how snide and condescending anti-Apple people get whenever somebody likes an Apple product? Why so emotionally invested? You're a weird techie who just wants to look down on people who like a product that you don't.You proved my point too, in that you were unnecessarily shitty about your difference of opinion, because you're objectively a weird fucking asshole.
by pifgoe
8/17/2026 at 9:07:45 PM
I don't care that it's Apple?by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 9:10:49 PM
[flagged]by pifgoe
8/17/2026 at 9:18:23 PM
Haha ok ^_^by cgyvbunji
8/17/2026 at 6:00:40 PM
Is this maybe dependent on country? I have used carplay, and don't have siri enabled.by fl0id
8/17/2026 at 7:36:41 PM
I'm not excited for iOS 27. I tried out the beta and decided to reset my phone to get my back to iOS 26. I find the new Siri is far worse and slower to respond, if that's even possible. It also adds new features that are hard to remove. I only use it for timers and playing music and the current Siri is just fine for that imo.by LetsGetTechnicl
8/17/2026 at 4:57:34 PM
i feel relatively comfortable with carply + basic siri, leaving apple intelligence off. basic siri is pretty limited in scope of what it has access to and what it can do.while it's an arbitrary line ive drawn, basic siri doesn't feel like "ai" in the same sense as context-aware assistants do for me.
by john_strinlai
8/17/2026 at 5:06:40 PM
I’ve never once been able to use CarPlay because I objected to Siri uploading information about my contacts list unencrypted to Apple’s servers.by mrtesthah
8/17/2026 at 5:12:49 PM
it's a bit more nuanced than you are making it out to be, but that's absolutely a fine and understandable choice to make.by john_strinlai
8/17/2026 at 4:49:54 PM
With Apple intelligence turned on, when I take a screenshot on my iPhone, it wants me to do this search that goes to temu, instead of the text selection that it used to do. So I turned it off, but I have to turn it back on to have auto translation in iMessage.by fragmede
8/17/2026 at 7:56:04 PM
yes! i just did this today as well. the product direction at apple is completely messed up imoby andrekandre
8/17/2026 at 4:29:01 PM
Apple considers siri essential for CarPlay and I don’t really disagree. Don’t forget that a big part of the design of CarPlay tries to explicitly discourage tactile use while driving, with siri as the alternative input/output method.by semiquaver
8/17/2026 at 5:03:28 PM
I start my music and navigation route before leaving my garage, and any other interactions (volume up/down, skip song) are buttons on my steering wheel. What do I need voice input for?(I use Android Auto, but it's basically the same thing for these purposes)
by delecti
8/17/2026 at 6:14:00 PM
Do people really use navigation apps often enough for this to be an issue?by ErroneousBosh
8/17/2026 at 7:04:14 PM
Yes, it's one of the most common usages of a phone in the car. And most people I know have exactly that workflow: find and set a navigation destination while parked, then drive there without interacting with the phone.by JoshTriplett
8/17/2026 at 6:55:55 PM
Are you asking if people use apps to get directions? I don’t have data to back this up, but I’d guess that nav integration is one of the most popular features of CarPlay and Android Auto.I depend on it for road trips, navigating to unfamiliar destinations, or even just sharing ETAs with people
by totallymike
8/17/2026 at 7:25:35 PM
I'm not sure I've seen anyone drive further than about 10 minutes away without Google Maps in the last 5 years.Or maybe everyone's misunderstanding your question?
by dmd
8/17/2026 at 9:12:35 PM
I don't really understand why anyone would need sat nav for a ten minute drive.by ErroneousBosh
8/18/2026 at 2:57:34 AM
Neither, but my coworkers are apparently unable to carpool to a lunch spot 5 mins away that we visit every 2-3 weeks without setting nav first.by ikr678
8/18/2026 at 12:41:54 PM
Many years ago now I picked up a colleague (the boss's son, actually) to drive down to London from Glasgow to collect some equipment.First thing he did was slap a massive TomTom sat nav in the middle of the screen. He got pretty indignant when I told him to take it off, because it was blocking my view out the windscreen.
"But how will you know where to go?"
Dude, it's London. London is south. We go south. We go south for like eight hours.
We can use the sat nav for the last dozen or so of the 400-odd miles we'll be driving.
by ErroneousBosh
8/19/2026 at 5:34:06 PM
Maybe he didn’t know that you knew how to get onto the motorway, or that it’s straightforward to do so. Try driving I-80 in San Francisco during rush hour and make the 4th Street exit without getting forced onto the Bay Bridge, without either having done it before or without some sort of guidance- digital or otherwise. Getting on and off a freeway is not always simple.Not to mention, even long road trips sometimes require a few highway transitions.
by Apocryphon
8/17/2026 at 11:09:50 PM
Once the city you live in gets large enough, memorizing the routes just becomes a non starter. I have my route to work almost memorized but due to construction or crashes it changes so often it is hard to cement it. (Seoul)by Catagris
8/17/2026 at 10:35:56 PM
Because the traffic isn't known to you but it is to Google. I could take two routes, one is faster depending on circumstances, and Google knows those circumstances.by fragmede
8/17/2026 at 11:18:22 PM
Is it really faster though?All you have now is two routes with a roughly equal amount of traffic on.
One of those routes will be a massive detour.
by ErroneousBosh
8/17/2026 at 11:47:17 PM
How do you know those routes have a roughly equal amounts of traffic? Or that there’s only two routes? I usually see at least three possible routes with my commute (with some forking), and at least one shortcut. During heavy traffic one optimized route can at least save 10-15 minutes than the slower one(s).by Apocryphon
8/18/2026 at 12:25:20 AM
It's really unlikely that you're saving any time at all.by ErroneousBosh
8/18/2026 at 12:42:10 PM
This just isn't true. You're assuming the conclusion and saying the routes will have equal amounts of traffic and that one will be way longer and that it's unlikely you're saving time. Except people that have experience with Google Maps have watched it flag upcoming traffic congestion and explicitly reroute you and ask you to confirm and show the time difference. That's the real-time aspect, but it can also project forward in time and estimate what the traffic along routes will be at the time you want to travel, so it's also an important planning tool.I have no idea why it's contentious that having nationwide surveillance of traffic patterns would result in better routing decisions.
by rpdillon
8/18/2026 at 12:32:36 AM
And you know this howby Apocryphon
8/18/2026 at 8:45:22 AM
Unfortunately, accidents are quasi commonplace among my commute.by paulddraper
8/17/2026 at 11:21:53 PM
I’m perplexed too, but I used to study the Hudson’s map book for my metro area for fun before I could drive and have been driving for 25 years, and I didn’t have a phone with GPS until 2015 or so.I don’t use active navigation, if I don’t know hot go get where I am going I just memorize the portion of the route I don’t know and then drive there. I will occasionally see what route is recommended due to road construction, but I generally know all of the proposed routes so I don’t need GPS once I pick one.
I avoid using active GPS navigation so my mental map of the road network stays in my brain, I think orientation/navigation is an important skill to maintain and using active turn-by-turn GPS destroys it.
by quickthrowman
8/17/2026 at 11:51:47 PM
Yes, of course. In my case Waze to get there efficiently, OSMand App for topographic maps, and occasionally Apple Maps (works well with addresses in Calendar) and Sygic. I use them in the car, and on my bike: ruggedised CarPlay / Android Auto screens are rapidly displacing ruggedised satnavs on bikes. Playing audiobooks and podcasts is handy, as is getting text messages read out with dictation for reply, but it's navigation which is the killer app for ACP/AA.by tengwar2
8/17/2026 at 9:08:32 PM
I use navigation apps on any trip where there's a possibility of traffic, because they'll route me around it.by pifgoe
8/17/2026 at 7:17:28 PM
I use navigation via Google Maps/Android Auto almost every time I drive anywhere, easily north of 95% of the time.by delecti
8/17/2026 at 9:12:14 PM
Why? Are you driving somewhere completely unfamiliar where you have no mental model of how to get there every time?I just kind of don't get why people are so into it.
by ErroneousBosh
8/17/2026 at 9:44:13 PM
A bunch of reasons, in no particular order: Having my phone visibly in-use makes it easier to avoid the temptation of touching it. I have a long history of playing video games, and seeing a "mini-map" is just how I'm used to navigating, even when I know the way. Having navigation that incorporates real-time conditions helps me avoid construction, traffic jams, or other miscellaneous issues. I have a pretty bad sense of direction, and it takes multiple trips to internalize routes, which doesn't happen because I drive infrequently (typically less than weekly, because I prefer to take the bus).by delecti
8/17/2026 at 10:12:14 PM
I guess it didn't occur to me that people might not remember how to get places in real life.I don't think I could stand to have any sort of lit-up screen doing something in my eyeline when I'm driving. I turn off the backlight on the dashboard when I'm driving at night because it annoys me.
by ErroneousBosh
8/17/2026 at 10:57:24 PM
Again, it's also helpful for warning realtime issues like poor traffic conditions, road obstacles, speed traps, etc.by Apocryphon
8/17/2026 at 11:21:25 PM
I don't know why people don't seem to understand what I mean when I say "I don't want any kind of lit-up screen in my field of view for any reason".Why would I care about speed traps or road obstacles? "Poor traffic conditions" isn't really something I can do much about, either.
by ErroneousBosh
8/17/2026 at 11:25:29 PM
The response is to “it didn't occur to me that people might not remember how to get places in real life”, which is a rather limited understanding of why people might use navigation. I am not here to preach to you the benefits of this technology, simply clarifying an additional use case. There’s no need to conflate your own needs or tastes with the rest of the driving populace, either.Also, those notifications can likely be conveyed using audio-only warnings, anyway. Making all of this discussion a bit moot.
Finally the entire benefit of live navigation is to find alternate routes with less traffic! That is something you could literally do about.
by Apocryphon
8/18/2026 at 12:27:09 AM
Most of the places I drive, there aren't really any practical alternative routes that don't add several hours and often things like a ferry journey to your trip.I don't want audio alerts for anything either. It's really simple - I don't want anything in the car that beeps, flashes, lights up, makes noise, or indeed does anything that is not directly part of making the car go in the required direction at the required speed.
by ErroneousBosh
8/18/2026 at 7:54:33 AM
I don't understand the mental process that leads to the pattern"I don't understand why other people would do X"
"Well, it can be because of Y, Z, or W."
"But I don't do/need/want any of those"
"..."
It's like it's a fundamental failure to understand that other minds are separate from yours and have different motives and preferences.
by Sharlin
8/18/2026 at 12:32:04 AM
Okay, that’s fine for yourself, but as seen in this subthread, other people have different tastes, and needs.by Apocryphon
8/18/2026 at 12:45:24 PM
You've jumped from "I don't understand why anybody would do this" to "I don't want it".People are different. People have different use cases. People live in different areas.
by rpdillon
8/17/2026 at 10:53:16 PM
Because my 15 minute drive can be a 60 minute drive depending on traffic and there are 3 viable routes I could take.Traffic changes while I'm driving and it automatically updates. An accident can occur on a bridge I'm approaching and I can get detoured and save actual time that I can spend with loved ones instead.
If I'm driving later at night, construction may block off my normal route and I can still get wherever I'm going.
I also get notifications for hazards like objects on the road, disabled vehicles, or events that are going to cause traffic. (I use Waze)
And the cost is zero. When I get into my car it automatically syncs and off I go. There's no reason to NOT have it.
by mardef
8/18/2026 at 3:05:47 AM
The cost isnt zero, previously you were exercising your brain and spatial awareness, you've now offloaded that critical thinking. Repeat this often enough in all areas of your life and you'll start to see impacts down the line on brain and memory function.Taxi/ambulance drivers who are required to memorise large parts of their city have the lowest dementia risk out of all (studied) professions.
by ikr678
8/18/2026 at 4:28:25 AM
This is about optimizing a commute with realtime info. There are other cognitive training methods beyond being Jamie Foxx in Collateral.by Apocryphon
8/17/2026 at 7:24:31 PM
Every day. Not for knowing how to get to a destination necessarily, but to get routed better.by eptcyka
8/17/2026 at 7:04:58 PM
Hard disagree. Checking the accelerometer to disable tactile functionality when moving would have been a more intelligent way to go about discouraging this behavior over mandating use of a historically unpopular technology (Siri) in order to use a popular one (Maps, Bluetooth music streaming).This reeks of the metrics-gaming desperation that we've seen in Google, Amazon, and Microsoft as well.
Shoehorn unpopular technology to gatekeep popular technology. Either way the consumer's quality of life goes down.
by rockskon
8/17/2026 at 4:46:49 PM
Interestingly, I have Google Assistant more or less disabled on my Android phone, but it still works when I have Android Auto enabled (which is fine by me since that's the one time that I ever want to use it).by cryzinger
8/17/2026 at 5:13:26 PM
I got the email that they're burying Assistant in September...I use it on the phone to set alarms, add tasks or calendar events, I swipe up on the home screen to launch the app, and talk. For calendar, speech ("add calendar event dentist appointment on September 22 at 4pm") is even much more convenient than scrolling to the right month/date, using the UI to pick the time.
I'm currently vibe-coding a replacement app to use on-device speech recognition and setting alarms or adding calendar events. Sadly third party apps can't add stuff to Google Tasks without further interaction (or without OAuth) like Assistant/Gemini can.
by netsharc
8/17/2026 at 5:42:31 PM
Moreover, you cannot turn off Auto, as it will forcefully turn on WiFi even if you explicitly disable it.by deepsun
8/17/2026 at 5:56:04 PM
And Google considers necessary to report (using tactile use while driving) if there are blockages in the road, construction, lane closures, an accident, etc.The discrepancy of using both with an iphone is disconcerting.
by mejutoco
8/17/2026 at 4:39:31 PM
Would be interesting to see anti competition law applied here, too. Essentially bundling the two together, leveraging the market for car play to gain adoption for Siri.by skinfaxi
8/17/2026 at 4:53:01 PM
Is every utilization of CarPlay inside a car performed "while driving"?by dataflow
8/17/2026 at 3:58:14 PM
On our car I can hook up my iPhone via Bluetooth to listen to audio books and music, bypassing carplay.by mark_l_watson
8/18/2026 at 1:18:29 AM
This got me mad too. And also restrictiveness of it - i can't see messages - WTH seriously? Why some tech stuff decides what is "safe"? (i guess it was the main driver)by jesterson
8/17/2026 at 3:19:28 PM
Fallback states are generally a ton of work that don't benefit the direction that the PM or broader business would want to go anyway.It's a pet peeve of mine that we often say "devs" when we really mean "the business". It seems to be gamers who started this language. They'll even call the publisher "the devs".
by sublinear
8/17/2026 at 5:37:43 PM
A developer made whatever tech is currently pissing me off. I don't care about the supply chain.by encom
8/17/2026 at 7:45:37 PM
How do you feel about other hot button issues like LLMs, privacy policies, Flock cameras, etc.? By your reasoning, developers "make" those things too.My point is just to make sure we're pointing the blame at the business where it belongs. It seems very strange how we generally do that, but make exceptions for features. Developers don't control features either. Always blame the business.
This language around "devs" is so twisted and inconsistent that I'm convinced someone is seeding this every time to deflect blame. i.e. "oops just a slip up by the devs" as if features could ever be anything but a massive premeditated effort involving dozens if not hundreds of people planning at least several months ahead of any code being written.
If you want to make a difference, you look at who is running the business. It means what a lot of fanboys cannot admit to themselves. Their favorite companies and CEOs might just be assholes.
by sublinear
8/17/2026 at 9:36:10 PM
I don't want to Godwin this thread so early, but you know what analogy I'm thinking of. If you work as a developer for Google, Microsoft, Flock, CloudFlare, Facebook etc. etc. you are complicit in making the world a crappier place.Did J. Random Hacker at Google decide to ruin Android app development[1] for everyone? No, but he made it happen. I hate that guy. (Also.)
[1] Edit: I'm referring to this nonsense: https://keepandroidopen.org/
by encom
8/17/2026 at 9:59:33 PM
You choose to have that perspective and be subject to that locus of control.Where do you really draw the line? How do you feel about money? How do you feel about eating to stay alive?
Ultimately, this is not a philosophy debate. If you're confused about what work is, that's your own problem. The business is still to blame.
by sublinear
8/17/2026 at 11:40:30 PM
I'm not saying it isn't, but I don't have a shred of sympathy for the developers manning the ovens. Pick a job that isn't actively harmful to society.If you're responsible for the system at Facebook that serves endless brainrot to people, starvation is too good for you.
by encom
8/18/2026 at 12:41:17 AM
I think you attribute way too much to the developers. Corporate offices are not small.by sublinear
8/18/2026 at 10:56:40 AM
Didn't we run this playbook and find just following orders isn't an excuse?by knollimar