: Re: Is it okay to call the reader's target audience stupid? I'm a tech genre author, and have already published one book on Android development. However, this book was focused more on the developer

@Angie602

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I don't think calling users as a general group stupid is appropriate in a development book. It would be appropriate in places where developers or customer-service reps vent to each other and try to top each other's "who's had to help the biggest idiot?" stories.

It's also not really relevant to the point you're making. Users might have any number of reasons for not noticing a feature that the developer thinks is obvious: they're in a hurry to finish a task, they have visual problems the developer didn't account for, they're not familiar with standard symbols or conventions, etc. Making things clear will help all those groups of people, whether they're smart or dumb.

Another problem with "Users are dumb" is that it can breed an attitude of resentment and condescension, rather than the idea that your job is to help the user accomplish a task or do something fun.

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