The kind of jobs we don't want to create

Some people's jobs exist because other people don't do their job well.

The software world is no exception to this.

I've been dealing with a situation this week where there's one person in a large organization whose sole job it is to help people deal with a vendor's poorly designed software. By the current state of things, they probably need three people in that position.

Ideally, if the software were designed well and usability-tested, they wouldn't need anyone in that position. It's wasteful, inefficient, and sometimes reality, even when superior competing services are available.

When we talk about “creating jobs,” these are not the kind we have in mind.

Creating jobs should be about increasing productive value, not making up for low-value user interfaces on otherwise valuable services.