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almost 8 years ago from Koen Bok, Maker of Framer.
Totally agree about the empathy among working peers! That being said the empathy should go both ways, programmers should learn at least about design principles and the "whys" of design so that they don't feel they're wasting their time when polishing interfaces.
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Speaking as a PM today, and having been in the author's shoes before, I just want to point out that over the years I think "hierarchical authority" has been moving toward "do-what-it-takes-to-get-your-job-done".
I agree, "designers should learn to code" as a statement isn't very fair. The author's point and the whole debate should actually be more like "designers should learn to code because ____". He doesn't say it explicitly (and I think he should)-- learning to code helps build empathy. And maybe one could get away with a career in "this industry" as a designer who doesn't have perfect empathy for the engineers they work with.
But empathy, not just for the people consuming your work, but also for the people working along with you I would argue, only helps everyone.