How to decrease your empathy and stop caring about your users
If they are so smart why are they using your software
Making software requires an understanding of how people work, just like making chairs involves an understanding of butts. For the most part, your users will be humans. Sometimes, they will be software that uses other software that humans make. When you get down to it, it’s all humans for now.
So it would be best to avoid this truth for as long as possible. There are a few ways to do this.
Stay in your lane
Most companies will provide some primary shielding that makes talking to users difficult. Your engineering forefathers were condescending and mean enough that it is general practice to keep the programmers as far away from active customers as possible.
At most companies, there is a group that understands users very well because they spend all day getting yelled at by them and eating never-ending appetizers together. Many of them deeply understand users because they are former users. Their perspective of the world and what truly matters in the software will ruin your perfect and untested understanding of it. Try to avoid them. History will also be on your side in this endeavor; simply acting strange or implying that they are stupid usually scares them away - even if what they tell you is essential or a good idea.
Do Not Pay Attention
Despite your best efforts, you will eventually get a bug report with a video attached. Do not watch your users actively using your software; if someone tries to show you a video of them doing so, run or have them describe it while you listen in from the other side of a cubicle wall.
While living your life, like going to the car repair shop, if you see people using software, don’t ask them anything about it: what they like about it, what they don’t, little tricks they use, etc. When you use general consumer software, try to think only of the code and not how the experience feels or how you would change it. When you find yourself using software and don’t think of it as software because it is so easy to use - slap yourself in the face to snap out of it. On the other end of the spectrum, when you are extremely frustrated about how complex software is, wallow in this pain and have it reset your standard tolerance. Take screenshots and share them widely. Do not think about how you would improve it; only point and laugh. Criticism feels good, but learning does not always feel good.
Decrease your empathy through active practice
Most of life is an opportunity to expand your understanding of the world and how others perceive it, so try to limit your input of other people's experiences. Don't read books by people who aren't like you. Only read things that reinforce how you feel already. Only make friends with people in the same broadband social caste you are in.
When you hear a story, don’t think of how the different characters in the story might tell it or how that might make them feel. Don’t read books about how humans work. And avoid fiction at all costs, especially tales told in the first person. Above all else, do not study yourself and how your emotions affect your behavior.
There is only one you, only one CPU, only one true.