<i>Being frustrated is also normal. It&#x27;s a natural part of the learning process.</i><p>I think the author&#x27;s point is software that isn&#x27;t frustrating beats software that is frustrating. He provides multiple good examples of bad error messages in actual software and how to improve them.<p>I&#x27;ll admit coffee machine metaphor isn&#x27;t a great metaphor, because his blog post is actually advocating configurability, but with a UI optimized for beginners and intelligent defaults (like a microwave with a popcorn button). I wouldn&#x27;t get distracted by the metaphor.