• (nodebb)

    a worse-than-useless button

    While I agree that button is a horrible way to silence users, and invoking gc() may do nothing, the only other possibility is benign. I've seen many other buttons that actually had a harmful effect --- corrupting data, for instance --- so I fail to see how this is "worse than useless".

  • (nodebb)

    one of the senior managers proudly mentioned that Conglomcorp had recently fired 50% of their workforce

    These days I'd find it difficult to restrain a simple, but probably difficult to answer and equally-probably job-shortening, question:

    Why are you proud of that?

  • (nodebb)

    I remember a story from a long ago job where people complained about how slow the application was, so they implemented a hurry up button. It made people feel more in control. It did nothing.

  • Tim Ward (unregistered) in reply to mynameishidden

    Ah yes, the mirrors-make-lifts-go-faster thing.

    If you put mirrors by your lifts, so that someone waiting for the lift can use the mirror to adjust their makeup, or their tie, or their hair, or take a selfie, you find that you get fewer complaints about how slow the lifts are.

  • (nodebb) in reply to Tim Ward

    The "hurry up" button gives an illusion(1) of control, whereas the mirror in the lift gives me something to do with my time so I don't notice how slow the lift is.

    (1) It's an illusion rather than real control because the button doesn't, in fact, do anything at all.

  • Darren (unregistered) in reply to Tim Ward

    I always thought they had mirrors to make them appear bigger. For some people, the realisation you're in a 6-foot square box tends to mess with their psychological wellbeing, so the mirrors trick them into thinking it's a bigger space.

  • Sauron (unregistered)
    Comment held for moderation.
  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to Darren

    Not in the lifts, but by them so it gives people something to do while they're waiting for them to arrive. Distraction.

  • (nodebb)

    Wasn't there an airport where people complained that the bags took too long to get to baggage claim so they just made the hallway wind longer through the building so that people had to walk a longer distance so they weren't standing around waiting?

  • Rob (unregistered)
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  • Tinkle (unregistered)
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  • Oracles (unregistered) in reply to mynameishidden

    "It did nothing."

    I would have at least had it change the spinny gif to a faster one to complete the illusion.

  • Klimax (unregistered) in reply to Tim Ward
    Comment held for moderation.
  • Officer Johnny Holzkopf (unregistered) in reply to Oracles

    During my "career" in data recovery, lots of work came in from people who faithfully clicked on a "Repair files" button that essentially damaged the remains of usable file data as well as filesystem metadata, making recovery needlessly complicated (and sometimes even impossible). That button should have been named "WRECK MY IMPORTANT BUSINESS DATA NOW!"...

  • (nodebb)

    Placebo buttons are a proud tradition. There's the "Close Door" button in elevators, and the button that's supposed to get you a walk signal at a traffic light.

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