2022 archives
Book review: May I Ask a Technical Question, by Jeff Krinock and Matt Hoff | Dec 26, 2022
Thoughts on ChatGPT after reading Crawford's Why We Drive: whatever skill you outsource, atrophies | Dec 11, 2022
Having fun with ChatGPT | Dec 7, 2022
Two examples where high-level overviews are essential: Macbeth and Elon Musk | Nov 28, 2022
Pulling readers through long documents | Nov 16, 2022
Stoplight tutorial update -- practically every screenshot updated | Nov 1, 2022
Podcast about Archbee -- a new documentation tool with a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more | Oct 31, 2022
Attempting to write a Life of a [something] narrative | Sep 23, 2022
'Putting together things': Articulating a thesis about the effects of hyper-specialization on documentation | Sep 22, 2022
Expanding from cross-product newsletters to a book club and site | Aug 21, 2022
Some advice if you're just starting out your technical writing career | Aug 16, 2022
Systems thinking: Limits to Growth, Complex Cause and Effect, and Shifting the Burden | Aug 9, 2022
Systems thinking and developer portals | Jun 22, 2022
Blobr API portal (API doc topic) | Jun 8, 2022
The impact of technical diversity on documentation -- epiphanies on a trip to IKEA | Jun 5, 2022
Technical diversity/pluralism/fragmentation in tech comm | Jun 4, 2022
My Commute Seattle Spotlight | May 15, 2022
Review of Peter Norton's Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving | Apr 25, 2022
Docs as Code | Apr 3, 2022
Inline ads -- updated advertising offerings | Apr 2, 2022
Keynote presentation to STC India 2022 | Mar 26, 2022
Remote work | Mar 22, 2022
Git and GitHub | Mar 20, 2022
API documentation | Mar 19, 2022
Every page is page one | Mar 16, 2022
Marcom and tech comm | Mar 14, 2022
Scrum | Mar 13, 2022
Let's Talk Docs podcast -- episode on measuring API documentation quality | Mar 7, 2022
The History of Content -- Content Components podcast with Patrick Bosek and Sarah O'Keefe | Mar 7, 2022
Preparing for technical writing jobs and interviews -- posts from Aaron Redshaw | Mar 7, 2022
Content strategy | Mar 5, 2022
DITA | Mar 4, 2022
WordPress and web CMSs | Feb 27, 2022
Quick reference guides | Feb 27, 2022
Screencasting | Feb 26, 2022
Faceted filtering | Feb 25, 2022
Wikis and crowdsourcing | Feb 24, 2022
Help authoring tools (HATs) and single-sourcing | Feb 23, 2022
Intro to the series: Trends to follow or forget | Feb 22, 2022
[Podcast] Become a technical writer: conversation with Bobby Kennedy about the technical writing courses he offers | Feb 21, 2022
My multimodal commuting strategies | Feb 19, 2022
Archbee product review -- first look at a new online platform for writing and managing documentation | Feb 14, 2022
Part 6: The newsletter as the social content of corporations | Feb 11, 2022
MEGAComm recording: How to increase awareness of tech comm inside corporate walls | Feb 10, 2022
Updated Metrics and Measurement section in API course to remove scoring aspect | Feb 8, 2022
Results of the survey about fizzled trends: Every trend is still with us | Feb 8, 2022
Survey about documentation trends that fizzled (one-minute survey) | Feb 2, 2022
Webinar recording of 'Using MadCap Flare to Generate API Documentation' | Feb 2, 2022
Part 5: More specifics about finding a focus | Jan 27, 2022
Part 4: Creating engaging content: A balance of interests | Jan 26, 2022
Part 3: Five basics for building an audience on the web | Jan 25, 2022
Part 2: Initial attempts and failures with workplace content | Jan 24, 2022
Part 1: Introduction to influence on the web | Jan 23, 2022
Themes from 2021: working from home and podcasting | Jan 12, 2022
Site analytics for 2021 -- a few observations and reflections | Jan 2, 2022
About Tom Johnson
I'm a technical writer / API doc specialist based in the Seattle area. In this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, visual communication, information architecture, writing techniques, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation if you're looking for more info about that. If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the field, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.