this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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This is why Technical Writer is a full time job.
It's also why the humanities are important. Stemlords who brag about not doing literature classes write terrible documentation.
My CS major required me to take two upper division English classes and I think they helped me more in my career than my upper division CS classes. People forget that documentation is for ourselves too
I'm really thankful that I had a great English teacher in high school, and that my degree required a technical writing class. Being able to write a coherent email got me further in my career than the technical stuff I learned in college.
I completely agree. Most peer feedbacks that I get mention my documentation. It has helped me so much
I think this is why the "my code documents itself" attitude appeals, even though it's almost never enough. Most developers just can't write, nor do they want to.
The problem with "It's self-documenting" is that there are inevitably questions about what it says, and there's no additional resources to pull from.
"my code documents itself" and "no, our CI system doesn't upload the source jars to Artifactory, why?"
Maybe, just maybe, people have different strengths and weaknesses and cooperating around our differences is what makes us succeed.
If you know your weakness is writing documentation, please hire a technical writer.
That's exactly what I'm saying, sorry if it came across somehow askew.
My point was there is no point in competing over whose job is "better", we should be working together.
There is a case to be made that people should be a bit more well rounded in general, and not just find a specific niche.
So non-technical people should still have a decent familiarity with computers and maybe be able to do some very basic coding. And technical people should spend some time working on their written and verbal communication.
Because in both cases, it makes people more effective in their roles.
Most open source projects rely on volunteers, and few technical writers volunteer.
Totally agree. And I'd argue that we don't even need technical writers. Even if all people do is correct grammar and spelling mistakes it would be helpful, let alone actually writing docs. It's one of the easiest ways non-technical folks can get involved with open source projects.
Every time I get stuck on something confusing I'm a README and figure it out I try to submit a patch that makes it more explicit.
If the documentation is sufficient for the intended audience, it's good enough.
Humanities are very important. Robots are not yet capable of flipping burgers!
Robots can definitely flip burgers.
Some can even do it twice!