Interest and Learning (was no subject)

[Kent Newton <KentN -at- METRIX-INC -dot- COM>]

On Wednesday, March 13, 1996 1:29 PM, Win Day quoted
kelly -dot- leydon -at- amp -dot- com:

>>Howdy...is it just me or has anyone else noticed a decline in interest
>>about techwriting?
>>
>>Do others out there tend to find it, well...unfullfilling?

To which Win replied:

>A decline in who's interest? In yours?  In your client's?

When I first read kelly's email, I thought she meant a decline in the
interest of techwriting on this list. We seem to talk more about the
latest technology than we do about the actual chore of writing.  I've
read more about the pros and cons of Acrobat vs. HTML than I have about
how to reasearch and organize the information that is presented in either
medium.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that medium is important, but
unlike Marshal McLuhan, I don't believe the medium is the message.  A
brilliantly conceived and executed Web page or Acrobat document does no
good if the information presented is garbage.

>[snipped description of variety in the techwriting field]
>I wish I had enough time to pursue all the areas in tech communication
I'm
>interested in.  I've yet to work on WinHelp, or with HTML, or SGML.  All
>_kinds_ of new things to learn!

If you took the time to learn all these new areas, Win, when would you
have time to write?  I see this as the insidious effect of the mad race
to know the latest technology: we're so busy learning the technology that
we have less time to research and document the product or service we were
hired to document.  Does anyone else see this trend as time-consuming as
I do, or am I just an alarmist?
Kent Newton
Senior Technical Writer
Metrix, Inc.
kentn -at- metrix-inc -dot- com