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eru · 2026-08-30T08:40:57.000Z

> I worked at a small company that had a policy of putting devs on front-line support in a rotation, both because it was too small to have dedicated support staff and because the owners wanted devs to understand how users interacted with the system better.

In the 2010s Mathworks, the company that makes Matlab, had a policy that everyone started in frontline support. Including developers. (They probably still have this policy, I don't know.)

It shaped attitudes and cultures quite a bit.

Xymist · 2026-08-30T12:02:02.000Z

The shaping isn't necessarily productive, though. My company has a policy wherein a the dev team are on a rota to assist the support team (and by extension clients) with technical queries. The net effect has been to make me hate customers with a passion usually reserved for opposing political regimes and childhood bullies.

pixl97 · 2026-08-30T17:36:22.000Z

>The net effect has been to make me hate customers

So what every support person lives thru on every day of work.

And really being a good support person involves figuring out what bucket the customer belongs in.

"Customers that are smarter than you and if they are talking to you, your shit is wrong somehow"

"Customers that are smart in general, but need some guidance accomplish more complex tasks"

"Customers that aren't very smart, but handholding works to solve their problems"

"Customers that are dumb, realize they are dumb, and persistent at being dumb"

and finally the worst

"Customers that think they are smart and are belligerent if their intelligence is questioned as they are doing something horrifically stupid"