2024 archives
Q&A about Paligo -- modern CCMS -- with VP of Product Rasmus Petersson | Dec 1, 2024
Should you join Bluesky? | Nov 23, 2024
Using AI to design landing pages (prompt engineering series) | Nov 17, 2024
Why designing landing pages is hard | Nov 13, 2024
Unpacking the issues from AI — thoughts on Alan Porter's post Am I the AI Luddite? and Fabrizio Benedetti's How I'm using AI as a technical writer | Nov 11, 2024
To establish value, focus more on high priority projects: Reading Michael Lynch's post on why he quit Google to work for himself | Nov 11, 2024
Sadik-Khan's Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, plus a visual account of Seattle's downtown biking and pedestrian infrastructure | Nov 3, 2024
From engineer interviews to written draft, with chain of thought reasoning | Nov 3, 2024
New API course on mastering documentation by Mark Wentowski on Docsgeek | Nov 3, 2024
Symposium on Usability and Design in France in April 2025 | Nov 3, 2024
Strategies for making doc bugs actionable | Oct 20, 2024
Escaping the Productivity Trap: Experiments with Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks — guest post by David Kowalsky | Oct 20, 2024
NotebookLM podcasts -- the missing piece in the GenAI puzzle? | Oct 6, 2024
[Podcast] GenAI and Document360: Conversation with Saravana Kumar | Oct 6, 2024
Using AI to jump-start code samples | Sep 29, 2024
Unified Knowledge powered by Zoomin -- Q&A with Paul Maass | Sep 15, 2024
Two days in my life as a technical writer, followed by reflection and analysis of fragmenting microtasks | Sep 8, 2024
What a day in the life of a Technical Writer in the energy industry looks like -- Guest post by Bonnie Denham | Aug 28, 2024
Routines and habit stacking | Aug 26, 2024
Podcast: Task decomposition and complex tree diagrams | Jul 28, 2024
Podcast: Using long-token contexts to quality check an entire API doc set | Jul 28, 2024
Podcast: Using file diffs for better release notes in reference docs | Jul 28, 2024
Podcast: Populating documentation templates using AI | Jul 28, 2024
Podcast: Gathering source material for context input | Jul 28, 2024
Podcast: Creating high-fidelity, thematically organized notes from engineering meetings using AI | Jul 28, 2024
Blogging as personal training? | Jul 26, 2024
Using long-token contexts to quality check an entire API doc set | Jul 15, 2024
Seeing invisible details and avoiding predictable, conditioned thought (ZAMM series) | Jun 26, 2024
Automate links in your release notes using AI (prompt engineering) | Jun 26, 2024
Links from around the web -- June 10, 2024 | Jun 25, 2024
[Podcast] Uncovering and communicating the value of your tech comm teams' work, with Keren Brown | May 30, 2024
[Prompt engineering series] Using file diffs for better release notes in reference docs | May 25, 2024
Updates two years later on my smartphone experiment | May 21, 2024
Thoughts on Docs as code being a broken promise | May 21, 2024
Get Better at Using Prompts With Deliberate Practice: One technical writer's little experiment — guest post by Diana Cheung | Apr 23, 2024
Prompt engineering series: Creating scripts to automate doc build processes | Apr 21, 2024
What should your documentation metrics look like? Q&A with Zoomin about their 2024 Technical Content Benchmark Report | Apr 14, 2024
AI is accelerating my technical writing output, and other observations | Apr 14, 2024
Upcoming conference: AI the API docs | Apr 3, 2024
Prompt engineering series: Gathering source input | Mar 20, 2024
Prompt engineering series: Error checking the output | Mar 20, 2024
Integrating AI with your content delivery platform and documentation: Zoomin Q&A with Keren Brown | Mar 18, 2024
Showcasing your API technical writer portfolio and projects — guest post by Peter Gustafson | Mar 12, 2024
Prompt engineering series: Reverse engineering the recipe for excellent documentation | Mar 4, 2024
Prompt engineering series: Populating documentation templates using AI | Mar 4, 2024
Prompt engineering: Task decomposition and complex tree diagrams | Feb 20, 2024
Prompt engineering: Creating high-fidelity, thematically organized notes from engineering meetings using AI | Feb 20, 2024
Visualizing APIs with tree diagrams, partly generated with AI | Feb 13, 2024
Walking and chatting with ChatGPT | Jan 21, 2024
Moved AI pages into their own collection and space | Jan 20, 2024
Coffee Chat recording: Ask Me Anything about Managing API documentation projects | Jan 8, 2024
Evaluating my 2023 site analytics -- why did my traffic drop? | Jan 7, 2024
[Podcast] Breaking ground: New API documentation course at UW, with Bob Watson | Jan 5, 2024
My 2024 technical writing trends and predictions | Jan 1, 2024
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.