As I wrote that column, I remembered the old cartoon of one programmer telling other programmers, "You all start programming, I'll go find out what the users want." Sadly, there's a lot of truth to that cartoon. I've had many of experiences where the obliviousness of computer programmers rivals that of the users.

It can run faster -- but it can't get out the door

In one case, a fellow programmer came to me to complain about how some people he promised to write a program for were suddenly all over him for the program. I asked him how long they'd been waiting. He replied that it was over a month but asked, "Why are they all of sudden complaining now?" A week or so later, I asked him if he ever got the program delivered. He replied that he had finished it, but was rewriting it in assembly language because he thought it would run faster.

Geek-to-user translation service

In another case, I was on a project team that was improving a system in use by an Army field unit. After we got the first phase of the update implemented, a user came over to me and the lead programmer and said something to the effect of, "This system sucks. It's too slow and it doesn't give me what I asked for when I want it."