RE: them engineers

Subject: RE: them engineers
From: Chuck Martin <CMartin -at- serena -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 10:52:49 -0700

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Justin Cascio [mailto:justin-paul -dot- geo -at- yahoo -dot- com]
> Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 9:20 AM
> Subject: RE: them engineers

> 5. Be helpful to them-- for instance, you can write out a few
> nice little
> methodologies for them on their internal processes, offer to
> take notes in
> their meetings (this is actually far more helpful to you but
> you can spin it
> so it looks like you're being selfless).
>
I have an issue with this, one that seems to come up over and over: why does
this have to be a one-way street? Why is it often offered as a "solution" to
kowtow to the programmer god? A technical writer is not an SCC* (Dilbert
notwithstanding), we are professional engineers who are as critical to the
success of a project as any programmer. We also often are the only ones
advocating for what real users of the product would need. Offering to take
notes in a meeting is not selfless, but simply a self-acceptance that you're
just a glorified secretary, and so deserve to be treated as such outside the
meeting as well.

--
"I don't entirely understand it but it is true: Highly skilled carpenters
don't get insulted when told they are not architects, but highly skilled
programmers do get insulted when they are told they are not UI designers."
- anonymous programmer quoted in "GUI Bloopers"
by Jeff Johnson

Chuck Martin, Sr. Technical Writer
cmartin -at- serena -dot- com

* Second Class Citizen


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