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> Our users do tasks and jobs that we find boring, banal and
> insignificant.
If it were fun it wouldn't be called work, now would it?
> Our users use technologies that are lower tech (less powerful,
> less varied, less interesting) than the technologies that we
> use to produce the documentation.
> The challenge of keeping up with our users' technology is
> less than the challenge of doing a moderate crossword puzzle
> a day.
There's plenty of complex technology out there being documented, or in need
of documentation.
> We are alienated from the content of our work (and can
> muster no passion for that content), so we compensate by
> becoming passionate about the formats, the processes and the
> technologies that we use to produce the documentation.
Your passion is misplaced. Find things that interest you more, or get
excited about helping your users learn something.
> We focus on our own technology not because we are lazy and
> afraid of the complexity of our users' technology but because
> our own technology is so much more complex than our users'
> technology and, therefore, it provides the greater mental
> stimulus.
Good thing you're not stuck using a typewriter :-) - actually you might find
more stimulation working for someplace like Adobe, or a document management
company where the domain and tools are more in synch.
> What do you think of that diagnosis? What's the prognosis?
> What's the prescription?
Hopefully I've offered some of that interspersed. Generally speaking,
though, what you are experiencing does not have to be your reality.
................................................................
Michael Collier, Technical Writer Office: N546
Information Systems Laboratory http://isl.arlut.utexas.edu/
Applied Research Laboratories: The University of Texas at Austin
Voice: 512-835-3408 e-mail: mcollier -at- arlut -dot- utexas -dot- edu
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