I often have a hard time explaining what I do to people, and I really shouldn’t, because I explain things for a living. But there’s a lot more to it than people generally think. Normally conversations about what I do tend to go something like this: Person I Just Met…

Random thoughts from a not-that-qualified person — I remember being new to technical writing and being out of my depth when it came to the behind-the-scenes architecture of how things got from my inbox all the way out to the web for customers to consume. Sure, I knew what XML and HTML were, but how in the…

I was texting a friend earlier about my problems, which are plentiful and of little to no consequence to anyone but me and the people I force to play the role of my therapist, and I said, “I’m going through a thing. I’m having a defining moment I think.” And…

No, not really, no it’s not, nuh uh, nope, nah… — I keep hearing that technical writing is a dying field. I have been hearing this “fact” since I first started doing the technical writing thing back whenst I was a wee babe. However, what I’ve observed in my LinkedIn inbox is very much the opposite. It still seems to be…

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen peoples’ eyes glaze over with boredom when I’ve been asked to describe what I do for a living. Usually the response is, “Uh hah. Interesting…” and then they wander away. Far far away. “Come back! I’ll talk about…

One time when we were out on the smoker’s patio, a friend of mine cocked his head to the side and looked at me for a solidly uncomfortable period of time. Then he spoke, “You just firmly believe you’ll be a kid forever, don’t you? Like you just view yourself…