Why good intentions sometimes fail

Good intentions alone don't guarantee ethical outcomes. For example, Airbnb's vision of belonging anywhere contributed to housing shortages in major cities.^[1] These failures stem from predictable blind spots in how well-intentioned teams approach product development.

Scale amplifies unintended consequences. A feature tested with hundreds might behave differently with millions of users. Edge cases become common at scale, and small biases compound into systematic discrimination. The infamous example of soap dispensers that didn't recognize darker skin tones shows how limited testing perspectives create exclusionary products despite no malicious intent.^[2]