passo.uno

Writing for LLMs is the new SEO obsession.

I think all technical writers, at some point or another, feel the urge to base their work on something more systematic than “it’s just the way folks documented stuff since forever”.

For the first time since I started this blog, I’m writing some predictions on software technical writing for next year.

I’m a terrible user of documentation.

Everybody loves to hate Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQs.

I recently was a guest on The Stack Overflow’s Podcast today, talking about docs (of course), the Vale prose linter, job titles, automation, LLMs, and much more.

A reader asked me how they’d become a Documentation Engineer, because they saw I got hired as one and felt curious about what it takes to get there.

I’ve been using large language models (LLMs) for a while now.

I’ve recently started a new job as a documentation engineer.

Some months ago I wrote a post about open source docs contributions.

I’ve recently found out about TypeSpec, a new language aimed at describing web APIs, through an interview that bears the provocative title of API Design in the Post-OpenAPI Era.

What does it mean to fail as a technical writer?

Last week I had the pleasure of conversing with Niklas Begley from Doctave.

Congratulations!

I’ve recently become a docs maintainer for OpenTelemetry, a pretty big open source project.

Just around the time I was complaining about the scarcity of books on technical writing, I got a copy of Technical Writing for Software Developers by Chris Chinchilla, a regular of the Write the Docs community.

With the job market getting tougher by the day, there’s a rising belief among tech writers that their role is “too niche” and a “dead-end job”.

People usually say that I’m a pleasure to work with and that I’ve a highly collaborative spirit.

Recommending books for technical writers that aren’t old technical manuals is hard.

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation on the pros and cons of Markdown for technical documentation with Ed Marsh (Goldman Sachs) and Eric Holscher (Read the Docs) in a webinar hosted by Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler).

A month ago, Lana Novikova asked me to imagine the future of software documentation.

Some technical writers in my network are genuinely worried about their professional future in the AI age.

Soon after publishing Tips for hiring your first technical writer, some readers kindly suggested to follow up with a post covering the previous step in the tech writing journey, that is, the realization that one needs a technical writer.

As technical writers we want to know if the docs we’re writing are accomplishing their goals.

I’m not only a technical writer and an avid collector of old manuals: I’m also a gamer.

Every once in a while, startup founders and managers decide that they need someone to create and manage their docs –perhaps after reading this letter.

I had a cool chat with Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com) about AI and its impact on technical writing and documentation.

I’ve already presented the gear I use at work.

Of documentation many are the kinds throughout the web—unnumbered, since no writer can count their multitudes, nor rightly learn the ways of their wild nature; wide they roam, these patterns, as far as Internet sets.

Here are the video and abstract from my talk Once Upon a Time There Were… Docs from Write the Docs Atlantic 2023.

I’ve been working as a writer in tech for more than 15 years now.

A few days ago I published a repository for the English Programming Language, a tongue-in-cheek parody of README files.

Dear software developer, You might have heard about technical writers, those mythical creatures.

A friend asked me the other day how I became a technical writer.

Should docs stay with the code they document?

I’ve enjoyed doing this one a lot!

Laura Vass from API the Docs asked me the other day why technical writing has such a bad rap.

Had some fun designing this technical writing map using Inkarnate.

Technical writing requires appropriate gear to be done in a way that’s both healthy and productive.

Just when we thought that we wouldn’t be replaced by WriterBot, a mounting concern is ruining many a breakfast: Bad actors could still get hired as technical writers by feeding take-home assignments to ChatGPT and presenting the resulting soliloquy as the…

There’s been a lot of fuss about ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational bot, and its docs capabilities.

Every now and then, people ask me how one can become a technical writer for software companies.

A recurring question from people entering the tech writing profession is “Should I learn to code?”.

Almost a year ago I had this crazy idea of writing a children’s book on OpenTelemetry.

While thinking about unconventional technical communication, like comic books, children stories, and games, a thought occurred to me that they’re all attempts at hitting the core of what a product is and does, that is, its truth.

As a psychologist, I’m quite familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

I had lots of fun creating this D&D style skills tree for technical writers.

There’s a string of questions that haunt every technical writer and documentation manager at some point in their careers: How do we know that we’ve done a good job?

I wanted to write this post for a long time, but got to it only now, perhaps because it’s a natural segue into Let’s blog more about technical writing.

I’ve been wondering for a while why I don’t see more blogs on technical writing, tech comms, and technical documentation.