API

I'd extend this to the customer support people as well (at least the ones who actually interact with customers).

At a company like Comcast, customer support people rarely have much autonomy, if any at all. They're forced to read from a very narrow script, are penalized heavily for deviating from the script, and are also penalized heavily if they underperform even when using the script. They're not paid terribly well, and since it's relatively unskilled labour, they often don't have very good alternative job choices (unlike developers in today's market).

I hate Time Warner as much as any of their customers should, though it's always good to keep in mind the separation between the company as a whole and the individuals within the company. The ones who are actually responsible for all of the reasons we hate Comcast/Time Warner are the ones that we're likely never to speak with, and that's no accident - they go out of their way to avoid talking to any customers[0].

[0] Because, unlike most startups, they don't have to worry about building a product people want to use - their customers have no choice.

Thanks for this.