normal people don't care about the backend

have you ever tried to explain to people what the Fediverse is? you probably just compare it to email, but then you find out they don't know how email works either. they just use Gmail, and think everyone else uses Gmail too. the next week, that same person registers an account on Bluesky, and loves every second of using it.

or maybe you've found out about this cool new idea for a chat app that'll totally revolutionize how we communicate online; only to download the alpha and find that it's just godawful to use, and half your messages don't go through. begrudgingly, you just go back to Discord.

well, those are actually my personal experiences, so you probably haven't had them. but have you noticed a pattern yet? i think i have.

when technical people have an idea for how to make things, we think about the backend first. after all, that's the part that matters, right? the frontend is just eye candy, the backend is where the work gets done. a frontend alone isn't a platform! so, we put all our effort into the backend, and by the end of it, we make the perfect backend for perfect people to communicate perfect messages.

but people aren't perfect. in fact, most people suck at using technology. they ignore everything except the parts that they have to interact with, then learn the bare minimum to get what they need done. they don't care about private keys and passphrases, all they care about is if they can talk to other people.

meanwhile, we haven't even started work on the frontend, and we've already moved onto another project, another theoretical solution to an imagined problem. the user should simply learn to deal with the sharp edges! who cares if a few people lose all their data?

now, i'm not saying that you should ignore the backend side of things entirely. instead, the focus should be on what actually matters in a backend. normal people will never care about how your systems work, and if you intend for anyone more than a gaggle of dorks to use your shiny new app, they shouldn't have to.

don't try to explain to someone a technical reason why they can't talk to their friend. the problem is that they can't talk to their friend, and they should be able to do that; your new technology is worthless to them if the messages they need to send can't go through.

computers should work for people, not the other way around.