Science Quote by Yukihiro Matsumoto

Under the calm phrasing is a quietly radical thesis: you don’t win people over by scolding their preferences, you win by changing the incentives baked into the tools. Matsumoto, best known for creating Ruby, is talking like a scientist who understands that “better” isn’t an absolute property; it’s a negotiated one. “People choose different criteria” acknowledges pluralism up front, disarming the usual tech-world dogmatism. Then he pivots: if a better way exists, the job is to make it “comfortable.” That word does a lot of work. It frames adoption not as surrender to authority, but as an experience - ergonomic, welcoming, low-friction.

The intent is persuasive without being coercive. Matsumoto isn’t claiming users are wrong; he’s implying that most “bad choices” are often rational responses to discomfort: complexity, ugliness, hostile documentation, punitive conventions. His subtext is that design is moral. You can’t preach good practice while making it painful.

Context matters: Ruby emerged in a 1990s programming landscape that prized efficiency, bare-metal control, and macho minimalism. Matsumoto counter-programmed that culture by centering developer happiness - an almost subversive metric in engineering circles. The line “I want to encourage that way” reveals gentle paternalism, but it’s softened by hospitality: make the right thing feel natural.

What makes the quote work is its strategic humility. It concedes subjectivity, then smuggles in a stronger claim: if you want better outcomes, engineer the environment so “better” becomes the path of least resistance.