[pookha]

I can tell you haven't been a software developer or engineer long if the woes of the Titanic aren't resonating with you at some level. They built out this lux tricked out master facade to make the most high-end ocean liner in the world but built it with rivets that were high in slag (cheap). They took shortcuts that got exposed on the product launch which sent over a thousand people to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. As a dev I look at this as the worst, most historically atrocious user experience in the history of human civilization and it continues to live on in the memories of everyone in 2025. And RIP to those that gave up their seats on those shifty lifeboats so that other peoples kids could survive this debacle.

[jodrellblank]

> "As a dev I look at this as the worst, most historically atrocious user experience in the history of human civilization"

Another contender: during the fire and sinking of the steamship General Slocum carrying people on a family picnic in New York, 1904, people reached for the fire hoses which were cheap and rotten and useless. The lifeboats were inaccessible. The life jackets unmaintained for a decade and had rotted to cork dust and the inspection records had been falsified. Imagine with no fire extinguishing, no lifeboats, you grab a remaining life preserver and put it on your kid and throw them overboard only to watch them sink to their death because the life preserver manufacturing company had put iron bars in them instead of cork floats because that was cheaper.

957 people died in the whole disaster. The headlines are here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1904/10/02/archives/put-iron-bars-in...

https://www.nytimes.com/1905/05/25/archives/for-life-preserv...

and the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38NfsPVC6m8

[ahazred8ta]

The rivets and plates were made of material that was strong enough at room temperature but brittle at freezing temperatures. This phenomenon was not known to metallurgists at the time. It was an industry-wide problem.