They made computers behave like annoying salesmen

Computers are precise machines. You can give a computer a precise command using an inhumane language, and it should perfome the command. It’s not a human, and there is no point of treating it as one. The goal of humanizing user experience isn’t to create an illusion of human interaction – it’s to make these mechanical commands more accessible while preserving their precise, deterministic nature.

UX designers and product managers of tech companies did a lot of damange to people’s understanding of computers by making the software behave like a human; or to be more precise, behave like an annoying salesman.

(Image from “Not Now. Not later either” by Chris Oliver)

We’re all familiar with this type. After receiving a clear “no thanks” they deploy increasingly manipulative tactics to meet their “always-be-closing” quotas: “Would this Wednesday work better?” “What would change your mind?” This behavior is frustrating enough from actual salespeople – it’s even worse when programmed into our software.

(Corporate LLM training session circa 2025)

Personally, I can tolerate but deeply dislike software that pretends to have ulterior motives. Take YouTube, for instance. When I explicitly say “Not interested” to their damned shorts feature, I get this response:

I understand that it’s not the “YouTube program” having its own agency and making this decision – it’s the team behind it, driven by engagement metrics and growth targets. But does the average user understand this distinction?

The population (especially the younger generation, who never seen a different kind of technology at all) is being conditioned by the tech industry to accept that software should behave like an unreliable, manipulative human rather than a precise, predictable machine. They’re learning that you can’t simply tell a computer “I’m not interested” and expect it to respect that choice. Instead, you must engage in a perpetual dance of “not now, please” – only to face the same prompts again and again.

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