A common belief is that tech is all about raw genius.
That if you can tinker away in solitude, the world will come knocking to marvel at what you’ve built. This, unfortunately, is bullshit.
Technology, for all its circuits and algorithms, is human. Every app, every device, every line of code exists to serve people.
So if you’re diving into tech to escape people, you might want to reconsider. Because, as it turns out, people are everywhere.
They’re your users fumbling through your UI, your colleagues trying to make sense of your half-written Slack message, your investors nodding through your pitch while silently deciding if they trust you.
They’re also the ones leaving a one-star review because they couldn’t find the download button.
If you don’t understand them, you’re doomed for failure.
The myth of the solo genius
There is a persistent fantasy in the tech world of the lone genius.
We love to tell stories about figures like Steve Jobs as if he operated in splendid isolation, dreaming up revolutions over a cup of lukewarm coffee. As if he sketched the iPhone on a napkin and, poof, it appeared.
That’s not how it happened.
Jobs didn’t build Apple in isolation. He had teams, he had advisors, and, most importantly, he had an uncanny instinct for what people wanted – often before they did.
No one builds a great product alone. What to build, how to price it, how to make people care – every step depends on human insight. And this is where many technical founders trip up.
They build for themselves, not their users. Then, when no one shows up, they blame the market instead of their own blind spots.
Tech is about solving human problems
Every piece of technology exists to solve a problem.
And who has problems? People.
What makes a product great? People deciding it’s great.
Take design. Many founders assume that if something looks good to them, it must work for everyone.
But great design doesn’t rest on personal taste. It’s whether you can make things easy, obvious, and not leave people swearing at their screens.
Take the difference between a sleek, high-concept app that frustrates users and an ugly, clunky one that just works. People will take the ugly one every time.
People don’t want to think about using your product. They want it to work so seamlessly they don’t even notice it.
That’s what made Steve Jobs and Apple such a success. People didn’t have to read a manual to know how to use an iPhone. That’s design, not based on personal taste but on the psychology of people.
The art of caring for others
If design makes products feel intuitive, marketing makes them irresistible. Yet, many technical founders dismiss marketing as fluff. A distraction from the “real work” of coding.
But marketing isn’t about tricking people. It’s about understanding them.
Let’s say you’ve spent years building an app. It’s fast, secure, and technically quite brilliant.
With bated breath, you launch.
And… nothing. No downloads. No buzz. Not even a confused email from your mum asking why the font is so small.
Building a great product is only half the job. The other half is convincing people they need it. That means knowing your customer.
One of the best examples of this is Dropbox.
Instead of running expensive ads, they built a referral system: invite a friend, and both of you get extra storage.
It worked because it tapped into something human. People love sharing useful things. And they really love free stuff.
Dropbox didn’t grow because it was technically superior. It grew because it understood people better than its competitors did.
Empathy as an advantage
Empathy – the ability to understand other people’s perspectives – gets dismissed as something soft. It’s nice to have, but not essential.
But in tech, it is a secret weapon.
Knowing what frustrates people, what excites them, what makes them trust you – that’s the difference between a product people love and one they abandon.
This doesn’t mean you need to become the life of the party or start dancing with strangers in coffee shops. But it does mean you should pay attention.
Watch how people use technology. Listen to what confuses them. Notice what makes them light up. The best founders are part technologist, part anthropologist. They study people because that’s where the insights are.
Ignore human behavior, and your product joins the graveyard of well-intentioned but unusable tech – littered with apps no one can navigate, websites that require three separate logins, and devices that demand a minor act of magic just to turn on.
And this applies to teams, too. You can build the most incredible product in the world, but you’ll need a team to take it further. This means less time writing code and more time with people.
Leadership relies on people believing in what you’re building. If you can’t inspire your team, or connect with them, you’ll struggle.
Worse still, you’ll alienate the very people who could help you succeed.
Investors, employees, customers – they don’t make decisions on logic. They make them based on trust. If you come across as dismissive, uncommunicative, or arrogant, they’ll take their business elsewhere
How to get better at understanding people
If all of this sounds like a skill set you don’t have, don’t panic. People skills aren’t inborn. They’re learned. Here’s where to start:
- Talk to users early and often. Don’t wait until your product is finished. Ask questions. Listen to the answers.
- Study great design and marketing. Look at products you love and figure out why they work. What makes them intuitive? What makes them appealing?
- Practice empathy. When a user gets confused, don’t assume they’re an idiot. Assume your design could be better.
- Work with non-technical people. Designers, marketers, customer support all see things you don’t. Learn from them.
- Learn to tell stories. Whether you’re pitching investors, writing website copy, or explaining your product to your mum, storytelling makes ideas stick.
Master that, and you’ll be unstoppable.
Final thoughts
It’s easy to think of tech as separate from human behavior. But that’s not true.
Technology isn’t just code and hardware. It’s how people use it. In their homes. In their workplaces. In their lives. So if you’re building tech, don’t run from the human side – embrace it.
Because at its core, technology isn’t about machines. It’s about us.
