It can’t be that difficult to do this, can it?

Thought I would just mention that there is a general lack of empathy in the world.  The title phrase

It can't be that difficult to do this, can it?

This is often an upsetting phrase to here for a programmer.  It borders on insulting the programmers intelligence.  Ok it may be a few steps away from you're an idiot and you really should be able to do this easily if you had an ounce of intelligence, but it is not far away enough from this phrase that it does not have the ability to grate or offend.  A slightly more empathic phrase would be more a long the lines of

is this possible, how much work would it take

I can put together a word processor that would make those of the 60s look appalling with little work at all, but just because in my field a lot of the work of the 60s has dated fast I would not assume the same of other fields.  The first successful moon landing was more than 50 years ago I would never say to a rocket scientist in my ignorance of their tasks,

landing on the moon, it can't be difficult to do can it
Why do people think this of software so readily?

Oh well luckily my empathy allows me to understand that they were not trying to cause offence and so I should not take any, but it does make me realise how much nicer the world would be with a little more empathy.

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