My 2024 technical writing trends and predictions
My 2024 technical writing trends and predictions

I've been mulling over whether to write a trends post this year. There's so much uncertainty, it's hard to feel confident about how the tech writing profession will play out. But little trends-related ideas keep surfacing in the back of my mind, so I decided to write out some of my thoughts. Before I jump into this, I want to say that I’m much more agnostic and unsure about directions this year. 2024 could be amazing, it could also be terrible. Or everything could be overblown and remain more or less the same. One thing is for sure: in predictions, AI dominates the scene and discussion.

Book review: Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do
Book review: Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do

Although my blog usually focuses on tech comm, I've started reviewing books covering wider topics. I recently read Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do, by Kathleen G. Nadeau, Ellen B. Littman, and Patricia O. Quinn. Several of my family members have ADHD, and I wanted to understand ADHD more to better support them. This book is one of the best ADHD books I've read, probably because I have four daughters (ranging from 13 to 22) and the book focused entirely on ADHD in girls. The book describes challenges girls with ADHD face in elementary school, middle school, high school, and beyond.

Etto, a new AI co-pilot for Heretto — Q&A with Casey Jordan
Etto, a new AI co-pilot for Heretto — Q&A with Casey Jordan

Etto is a new AI copilot from Heretto designed to help content authors harness the power of structured content more easily. In this Q&A, Casey Jordan, co-founder of Heretto, explains how Etto can reduce the complexity of XML authoring through guidance, content analysis and updates, refactoring, and other automations. Etto is focused specifically on structured content tasks and works collaboratively within documents so changes show up as track changes, like a human co-author. This allows for a conversational workflow. Unlike some competitor tools that rely on OpenAI, Etto's models remain completely within Heretto's platform for security and privacy. (Note: This is a sponsored post.)

Podcast: Notes and themes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Podcast: Notes and themes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

These are some notes and thoughts from reading Robert Pirsig's classic philosophical novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, published in 1974. My reading here focuses more on the technical writing aspects and themes from the book. Some themes include Classic versus Romantic modes of thought, the concept of Quality, our relationship with technology, doing your own maintenance, caring about the work, peace of mind, systems thinking, multiple paths through a problem, troubleshooting, being in-the-scene versus removed, the road trip, effortless action, going with the flow, traveling along the backroads, and presence in the moment. I also include some questions about these themes to prompt discussion (these notes were initially prepared for a book club).

Webinar recording: Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective
Webinar recording: Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective

I recently gave a webinar titled 'Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective' on December 8, 2023. The webinar was sponsored by the STC Washington, DC - Baltimore Chapter. In this presentation, I shared some personal experiences in using AI for different writing-related use cases, explaining what I’ve found helpful. These use cases and takeaways were all experiential, based on my experiments with using AI both in the workplace for documentation-related scenarios and writing on my blog.

30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human
30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human

In this post, I provide over 30 real-life examples of how I'm using AI on a daily basis, not just for technical writing tasks but more broadly in life, including summarizing content, explaining concepts, answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and having engaging conversations for a variety of tasks and scenarios. In my view, AI use cases are ubiquitous, equivalent to the use cases for computers or the Internet in general.

Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh
Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh

In this podcast, I talk with Ed Marsh about podcasting. You may have listened to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast previously. As an experienced podcaster, Ed has a lot of insights and thoughts about podcasting. We discuss what initially drew him to start podcasting, the equipment and logistics involved in podcasting, different formats that engage listeners (from co-hosts to single person podcasts, and more), incorporating AI tools, why podcasters often go on hiatus, the ongoing appeal of podcasting, and more.

Webinar: Let's talk API docs: a discussion about issues impacting documentation for APIs
Webinar: Let's talk API docs: a discussion about issues impacting documentation for APIs

I recently participated in a webinar called Let's Talk API Docs with Scott Abel, Mark Wentowski, and Kartik Balasubramanian on December 13 at 8am PST. The panel discussion covered a wide array of topics, such as limitations of autogenerated API documentation, security in API docs, tailoring documentation to user needs. We also discussed challenges such as standardizing API documentation as well as opportunities for improving the developer experience.

Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski
Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski

In this episode, I chat with Dan Grabski, a senior content developer based in Portland, both about his recent WTD talk titled 'Zen and the Art of Manually Creating API Documentation' and Robert Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' Dan explains the importance of focusing not just on technical details of implementations but also on integrating the people side — on understanding the perspectives of different users and stakeholders involved. Dan provides examples from his engineering background to illustrate how intuition develops from experience, how to avoid spectator mode through hands-on exploration of APIs, on carving out time to devote to continual learning, and the value of incremental progress. Overall, it's a great conversation about engaging more deeply with technology to write better documentation.

You've heard of 'Docs as code' -- Now get ready for 'Code as docs': Q&A with Speakeasy
You've heard of 'Docs as code' -- Now get ready for 'Code as docs': Q&A with Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a platform aimed at simplifying the creation and consumption of APIs. Its primary product is the creation of SDKs (client libraries), but its new offering (and most relevant to technical writers) is the 'Code as Docs' product. Their Code as Docs product embeds SDKs into the traditional API reference, providing users with code snippets in 8+ languages and bridging the gap between documentation and real-world applications. This post is a Q&A with Sagar Batchu, CEO and co-founder of Speakeasy.

Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs
Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs

In this short podcast, I explore using AI tools to do research, the potential for fake URLs, and how to deal with the fabrication. I started by using Claude to summarize a podcast and provide a list of salient points, including the potential counterargument. What I didn't expect was for Claude to fabricate a list of imagined research and then summarize the fictitious research to conclude that it lended support for the counterargument. I took Claude's list of research and pasted it into ChatGPT with Bing to browse the real-time web to validate the sources. Using Claude and ChatGPT in combination worked pretty well, but overall this is a tale of caution. You have to be suspicious of research provided by AIs and know how to use each tool according to its strengths.

Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality
Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality

In Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett describe how the Dutch achieved so much cycling success, and how other cities might do the same. The authors bring up a variety of techniques and approaches the Dutch have used, such as seamlessly integrating cycling with public transit, pursuing customized strategies based on each city's unique landscape and culture, taking an iterative approach to infrastructure, using tactical urbanism and prototyping, and more.

Movemate standing board review — fixing your back, legs from sedentary decline from a tech job
Movemate standing board review — fixing your back, legs from sedentary decline from a tech job

The Movemate board fits into the genre of work-focused standing boards designed to reduce fatigue while standing at a computer. This Movemate review is a bit different from the normal tech comm content on my blog, but I believe it's just as relevant. If you're sitting right now, does your back hurt a bit? Do your legs feel like they've been shut off and are atrophying? Are you tired of sitting all day every day in front of a screen? It doesn't have to be like that.

My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI
My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI

You can use AI tools like Claude to help you write full-length content. By going paragraph-by-paragraph, you can direct the AI while seemingly maintaining your own voice and ideas. However, despite my attempts to use AI with writing, I've found that it's harder to pull off than I thought. I can get close, but due to the way AI tools are trained, they inevitably steer into explanation more than argument. This can remove much of the interest from a personal essay.

Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti
Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti

In this podcast, I chat with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti, a tech writer in Barcelona who blogs at passo.uno and works for Splunk, about various AI news topics. We talk about the Forrester AI jobs impact forecast, the community element in documentation, the way the profession is changing with AI, content design roles with LLMs, how complex processes and interactions can't be automated, whether the word 'content' is problematic, and more.