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Re: Economist magazine points to decline of tech writing

Subject: Re: Economist magazine points to decline of tech writing
From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>, Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- nuot -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 11:03:58 -0800

What I'm talking about is a lot more complex than a company deciding it doesn't need to spend money on documentation. It's AI that can be "taught" to do the "thinking" part of what real technical writers do. This will affect even those of us who have worked in regulated industries where replacing documentation with user-based wikis and forums is not an option.

Although the period of job loss may not be all that long, depending on how much time it takes for Skynet to decide that the regulators and end users who are responsible for documentation as a requirement are no longer "adding value."

Gene Kim-Eng


On 1/4/2015 7:23 AM, Keith Hood wrote:

"Computerization" won't lead to losses in the tech writing job market - business decisions will. Tech writers are always among the first to go when a company feeling the pinch has to cut head count, because we are seen as not adding value to the products and not contributing to sales. That's why so many companies have replaced help systems with user forums, which to an inexperienced user are about as helpful as giving a blind man a color-coded chart.

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Re: Economist magazine points to decline of tech writing: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: Economist magazine points to decline of tech writing: From: Keith Hood

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