Field Noe #067 | The Distance Paradox: When Devotion to the Build Blinds You to the User

Engineering the Intelligent Enterprise · Oct 21, 2026 · 33m

Indifference is easy to spot in a poorly made product. The harder failures to diagnose are the ones caused by devotion.

In Field Note #08, we examine The Distance Paradox: caring intensely about the work requires emotional intimacy, but objective evaluation requires emotional distance. When engineers, designers, and operators spend months solving difficult internal problems, their familiarity compresses complex workarounds into effortless habits . They begin subsidising the product with their own memory during internal tests.

We grew close to the product. We lost sight of the user.

This…