2023 archives
Book review: Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do | Dec 31, 2023
Etto, a new AI co-pilot for Heretto — Q&A with Casey Jordan | Dec 18, 2023
Podcast: Notes and themes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig | Dec 15, 2023
Webinar recording: Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective | Dec 13, 2023
30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human | Dec 4, 2023
Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh | Dec 3, 2023
Webinar: Let's talk API docs: a discussion about issues impacting documentation for APIs | Dec 3, 2023
Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski | Nov 18, 2023
You've heard of 'Docs as code' -- Now get ready for 'Code as docs': Q&A with Speakeasy | Nov 9, 2023
Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs | Nov 9, 2023
Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality | Nov 6, 2023
Movemate standing board review — fixing your back, legs from sedentary decline from a tech job | Oct 29, 2023
My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI | Oct 25, 2023
Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti | Oct 20, 2023
What is Diátaxis and should you be using it with your documentation? | Oct 18, 2023
[Podcast] AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't | Oct 14, 2023
Forrester Report, Coding jobs, Hyper-personalization, RFPs, Call center replacement (Oct 9, 2023) | Oct 9, 2023
What I learned in using AI for planning and prioritization: Content strategy might be safe from automation | Oct 6, 2023
Open-source contribution myths, Hiring poets to train LLMs, Problems with 'content', AI agents (Oct 6, 2023) | Oct 5, 2023
Embracing professional redefinition | Oct 3, 2023
Documentation failures, Bestiaries, AI Explain post mortem, Inside TechComm podcast (Oct 3, 2023) | Oct 2, 2023
New article: AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't | Sep 28, 2023
Claude versus ChatGPT -- and a few thoughts on using AI chatbots on an Alaskan cruise | Sep 18, 2023
Alphadoc: Build API documentation that tells your API's story | Sep 17, 2023
New API course topic: Using AI for summaries | Sep 7, 2023
Links from around the web (Sept 5, 2023) | Sep 5, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI for glossary definitions | Sep 4, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI for comparison tasks with API responses | Aug 28, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI For thematic analysis | Aug 28, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI for language advice | Aug 9, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI to create doc updates based on bugs | Aug 9, 2023
New API doc course topic: Using AI to learn coding | Jul 25, 2023
New topic in API course: Using AI tools to write build and publish scripts | Jul 19, 2023
New topic in API doc course: AI document engineering with pattern-based prompts | Jul 6, 2023
First Look at Oxygen XML's Positron AI Assistant [API doc course] | Jul 4, 2023
Adding a new AI section to my API doc course | Jul 4, 2023
First look at the Oxygen XML's AI Positron Assistant | Jul 4, 2023
Telling your conversion story into tech comm | Jun 25, 2023
Chapter PDFs for API doc course | Jun 25, 2023
How to meet other technical writers in Seattle -- WTD Seattle coffee chats | Jun 25, 2023
How the blog-to-book experiment is going: challenges and thoughts | Jun 15, 2023
Blog and API doc course are now one site | Jun 9, 2023
Doctave Q&A with Niklas Begley | Jun 8, 2023
News turns the content wheel of advertising | May 19, 2023
Newsletter: Endless news cycles, style checkers, finding research, noticing things around you | May 19, 2023
How to find academic research to back up your tech comm decisions | May 19, 2023
Book review of the Art of Noticing, by Rob Walker | May 19, 2023
AI starting to diminish work for student essay ghostwriters | May 19, 2023
From DITA to docs-as-code and Docusaurus: Q&A with Mike Howes | May 16, 2023
Newsletter: Copilot for Docs, Wappalyzer, Illusions, Late projects, Forbidden Fruit | May 11, 2023
Newsletter: Doctave, Chatbase, SiteGPT, small CLs, TC bibliography | May 9, 2023
What’s missing from the AI workflow: incentives for content creators to provide training data | May 4, 2023
Newsletter: Content creator ROI, Netlify, Madbot, and Hollywood | May 4, 2023
Newsletter: AI doc alerts, state of tools, saying easy or just, automated writing teams | May 2, 2023
Newsletter: Docusaurus, Lens, Docs-as-Code, 2022 site analytics, and HTML Table formatting | Apr 27, 2023
Newsletter: Markprompt Q&A, LearningDITA, Snowflake docs, AI Commits | Apr 24, 2023
Meandering thoughts on my 2022 site analytics | Apr 23, 2023
Markprompt Q&A with Michael Fester | Apr 23, 2023
Newsletter: Alphadoc, vocab lookup, field, Open Assistant, Markprompt, content ops | Apr 20, 2023
Newsletter: GPT-4 tutors, Phind.com, Dark user manuals, interfaces for reading docs, automation scripts, and bball | Apr 17, 2023
AI chat interfaces could become the primary user interface to read documentation | Apr 17, 2023
Using AI tools to look up words and provide mini-poems to help remember their meaning | Apr 16, 2023
A script that creates a new Jekyll post and populates it with YAML frontmatter, and also makes a curl call to add a Rebrandly shortlink | Apr 16, 2023
Newsletter: Docs-as-ecosystem, structure in WordPress, identity crisis, and pencils | Apr 14, 2023
Newsletter: AI and tech comm survey results, Zoomin's predictions, Beating an ATS, ChatGPT plugin docs | Apr 11, 2023
Survey results: Technical writers on AI | Apr 10, 2023
Newsletter: Why engineers need to write, tech writers in pop culture, 101 subreddit, Cambrian period of AI (April 4, 2023) | Apr 4, 2023
Survey on the impact of AI on tech comm | Apr 3, 2023
Upcoming Webinar: API Trends Across the Lifecycle Webinar (April 11, 2023) | Apr 3, 2023
Beyond 'parts' documentation: Moving towards systems thinking with developer portals | Mar 26, 2023
The influence of language-generative AI tools on tech comm: parlor tricks or disruption? | Mar 13, 2023
Updates on my standing experiment: surprisingly good for the lower back | Mar 11, 2023
Presentation recording: Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey | Mar 7, 2023
Podcast: All about Redocly, with founder Adam Altman | Feb 26, 2023
Building your own balance board for a standing desk | Feb 24, 2023
Finally got Covid -- my experience | Feb 13, 2023
Five ways to leverage big-picture thinking as a technical writer | Feb 12, 2023
New Job-Hunter Support Group course offered by Bobby Kennedy | Jan 26, 2023
New series: Sitting, standing, and walking | Jan 25, 2023
Approaching the college personal essay: Tips as a parent helping your student write a compelling essay | Jan 17, 2023
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, 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.