2023 archives

1. Book review: Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do | Dec 31, 2023

2. Etto, a new AI co-pilot for Heretto — Q&A with Casey Jordan | Dec 18, 2023

3. Podcast: Notes and themes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig | Dec 15, 2023

4. Webinar recording: Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective | Dec 13, 2023

5. 30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human | Dec 4, 2023

6. Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh | Dec 3, 2023

7. Webinar: Let's talk API docs: a discussion about issues impacting documentation for APIs | Dec 3, 2023

8. Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski | Nov 18, 2023

9. You've heard of 'Docs as code' -- Now get ready for 'Code as docs': Q&A with Speakeasy | Nov 9, 2023

10. Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs | Nov 9, 2023

11. Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality | Nov 6, 2023

12. Movemate standing board review — fixing your back, legs from sedentary decline from a tech job | Oct 29, 2023

13. My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI | Oct 25, 2023

14. Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti | Oct 20, 2023

15. What is Diátaxis and should you be using it with your documentation? | Oct 18, 2023

16. [Podcast] AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't | Oct 14, 2023

17. Forrester Report, Coding jobs, Hyper-personalization, RFPs, Call center replacement (Oct 9, 2023) | Oct 9, 2023

18. What I learned in using AI for planning and prioritization: Content strategy might be safe from automation | Oct 6, 2023

19. Open-source contribution myths, Hiring poets to train LLMs, Problems with 'content', AI agents (Oct 6, 2023) | Oct 5, 2023

20. Embracing professional redefinition | Oct 3, 2023

21. Documentation failures, Bestiaries, AI Explain post mortem, Inside TechComm podcast (Oct 3, 2023) | Oct 2, 2023

22. New article: AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't | Sep 28, 2023

23. Claude versus ChatGPT -- and a few thoughts on using AI chatbots on an Alaskan cruise | Sep 18, 2023

24. Alphadoc: Build API documentation that tells your API's story | Sep 17, 2023

25. New API course topic: Using AI for summaries | Sep 7, 2023

26. Links from around the web (Sept 5, 2023) | Sep 5, 2023

27. New API doc course topic: Using AI for glossary definitions | Sep 4, 2023

28. New API doc course topic: Using AI for comparison tasks with API responses | Aug 28, 2023

29. New API doc course topic: Using AI For thematic analysis | Aug 28, 2023

30. New API doc course topic: Using AI for language advice | Aug 9, 2023

31. New API doc course topic: Using AI to create doc updates based on bugs | Aug 9, 2023

32. New API doc course topic: Using AI to learn coding | Jul 25, 2023

33. New topic in API course: Using AI tools to write build and publish scripts | Jul 19, 2023

34. New topic in API doc course: AI document engineering with pattern-based prompts | Jul 6, 2023

35. First Look at Oxygen XML's Positron AI Assistant [API doc course] | Jul 4, 2023

36. Adding a new AI section to my API doc course | Jul 4, 2023

37. First look at the Oxygen XML's AI Positron Assistant | Jul 4, 2023

38. Telling your conversion story into tech comm | Jun 25, 2023

39. Chapter PDFs for API doc course | Jun 25, 2023

40. How to meet other technical writers in Seattle -- WTD Seattle coffee chats | Jun 25, 2023

41. How the blog-to-book experiment is going: challenges and thoughts | Jun 15, 2023

42. Blog and API doc course are now one site | Jun 9, 2023

43. Doctave Q&A with Niklas Begley | Jun 8, 2023

44. News turns the content wheel of advertising | May 19, 2023

45. Newsletter: Endless news cycles, style checkers, finding research, noticing things around you | May 19, 2023

46. How to find academic research to back up your tech comm decisions | May 19, 2023

47. Book review of the Art of Noticing, by Rob Walker | May 19, 2023

48. AI starting to diminish work for student essay ghostwriters | May 19, 2023

49. From DITA to docs-as-code and Docusaurus: Q&A with Mike Howes | May 16, 2023

50. Newsletter: Copilot for Docs, Wappalyzer, Illusions, Late projects, Forbidden Fruit | May 11, 2023

51. Newsletter: Doctave, Chatbase, SiteGPT, small CLs, TC bibliography | May 9, 2023

52. What’s missing from the AI workflow: incentives for content creators to provide training data | May 4, 2023

53. Newsletter: Content creator ROI, Netlify, Madbot, and Hollywood | May 4, 2023

54. Newsletter: AI doc alerts, state of tools, saying easy or just, automated writing teams | May 2, 2023

55. Newsletter: Docusaurus, Lens, Docs-as-Code, 2022 site analytics, and HTML Table formatting | Apr 27, 2023

56. Newsletter: Markprompt Q&A, LearningDITA, Snowflake docs, AI Commits | Apr 24, 2023

57. Meandering thoughts on my 2022 site analytics | Apr 23, 2023

58. Markprompt Q&A with Michael Fester | Apr 23, 2023

59. Newsletter: Alphadoc, vocab lookup, field, Open Assistant, Markprompt, content ops | Apr 20, 2023

60. Newsletter: GPT-4 tutors, Phind.com, Dark user manuals, interfaces for reading docs, automation scripts, and bball | Apr 17, 2023

61. AI chat interfaces could become the primary user interface to read documentation | Apr 17, 2023

62. Using AI tools to look up words and provide mini-poems to help remember their meaning | Apr 16, 2023

63. 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

64. Newsletter: Docs-as-ecosystem, structure in WordPress, identity crisis, and pencils | Apr 14, 2023

65. Newsletter: AI and tech comm survey results, Zoomin's predictions, Beating an ATS, ChatGPT plugin docs | Apr 11, 2023

66. Survey results: Technical writers on AI | Apr 10, 2023

67. Newsletter: Why engineers need to write, tech writers in pop culture, 101 subreddit, Cambrian period of AI (April 4, 2023) | Apr 4, 2023

68. Survey on the impact of AI on tech comm | Apr 3, 2023

69. Upcoming Webinar: API Trends Across the Lifecycle Webinar (April 11, 2023) | Apr 3, 2023

70. Beyond 'parts' documentation: Moving towards systems thinking with developer portals | Mar 26, 2023

71. The influence of language-generative AI tools on tech comm: parlor tricks or disruption? | Mar 13, 2023

72. Updates on my standing experiment: surprisingly good for the lower back | Mar 11, 2023

73. Presentation recording: Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey | Mar 7, 2023

74. Podcast: All about Redocly, with founder Adam Altman | Feb 26, 2023

75. Building your own balance board for a standing desk | Feb 24, 2023

76. Finally got Covid -- my experience | Feb 13, 2023

77. Five ways to leverage big-picture thinking as a technical writer | Feb 12, 2023

78. New Job-Hunter Support Group course offered by Bobby Kennedy | Jan 26, 2023

79. New series: Sitting, standing, and walking | Jan 25, 2023

80. Approaching the college personal essay: Tips as a parent helping your student write a compelling essay | Jan 17, 2023