Mixed and Mashed
Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of spending the day in Building 20 of the Microsoft campus with the friendly folks that work there along with a handful of web influentials.
As a quick aside, I’ve seen this group labeled as A-listers elsewhere. I’m not really comfortable with either term. At least for myself. Who draws that curtain? It’s always bothered me that we create these labels for our peers that ultimately distance us from one another. I’ll be just as approachable (and just as nervous when meeting someone new) at SXSW—regardless of which list anyone is on.
Microsoft flew us out to Seattle to talk about MIX, to put their ideas on the table and have us offer up constructive criticism to make the event stronger. It was a lot to take in. We jumped from WPF/E to IE 7 to Xbox 360 and the new XNA game development platform to Windows Media Center to the conference setting itself. The day closed with an hour long question and answer session with Bill Gates. It was a lot to take in.
On the flight home I went over my notes from the day. Dean Hachamovitch of the IE team was talking to us about the Seven beta process, its value to them as developers versus the value to us as developers versus the end value to the mass user. Beyond the bug prioritizing and the logistics of serving so many different constituencies he mentioned fielding questions from his mom.
I took a single note during that entire session, “Dean has a mom.”
Sitting in the same room as someone who is undoubtedly on the receiving end of an entire industry’s years of pent-up frustration (the result of IE’s innumerable shortcomings) something clicked. When I redesigned ShaunInman.com a lot of bile found its way into my inbox and Mint referrers feed. All that unsolicited aggression is demotivating. And this is just a personal site. Imagine having to sift through that as a member of a team responsible for the most common browser in the world. I’ve sent my share of ill-placed hostility and barbs but being in the same room put everything into context: These are smart people working on a difficult problem. Anything but constructive criticism is the opposite of productive for all concerned.
This doesn’t mean I’m now a Microsoft or Internet Explorer apologist. This realization doesn’t fix any of the bugs or restore any lost time. It doesn’t make the Zune I received for participating in this event work with my MacBook Pro. I’m not going to endorse MIX any more than I would an Adobe-organized conference. But going forward I will be a little more conscious of what I do with all that negative energy brought on by frustrating software and circumstance.