A software product ostensibly intended to increase productivity but having the opposite effect. Patronising pseudo-intelligence and FeatureBloat can lead to the user spending more time trying to make the tool do what they want than doing their job. The battle of wills between human and software is invariably lost by the human.

See MicrosoftProject, NetHack
''[but NetHack is designed to waste time, surely?]''

See InMyWay, compare OnMySide.

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Any tool that punishes the user into doing things ''the tool's way.'' I'm the user, goddangit, I tell ''it'' what to do. Well, that's what I ''want'' to do. -- SunirShah

The distinction should be made between the true AntiProductivityTool and a tool that you are having difficulty using; just as an axe is the wrong tool to sharpen a pencil but the right tool for chopping a tree down, software tools are designed to support a particular way of working at the expense of others.

I love my Emacs.  But it makes a really bad Photoshop, and it is unreasonable for me to complain about that.  -- GrahamHughes

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CategorySoftwareTool