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2025 archives

  1. Achieving a feedback improvement loop with documentation by simulating user queries | Nov 1, 2026

  2. Q&A about Nytril, a programming language for building documents, with Shawn McCreight | Oct 31, 2026

  3. Chunking your content for agent readability | Oct 31, 2026

  4. Looking at a site like an agent — identifying semantics in styling | Oct 29, 2026

  5. Making documentation pages agent friendly | Oct 26, 2026

  6. My AI strategy to fix docs based on chat logs | Oct 25, 2026

  7. AI Book Club recording of Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare, by Katrina Manson | Oct 21, 2026

  8. Why docs still need an owner — podcast with CT Smith about WTFM | Oct 19, 2026

  9. How I turn my API doc course into a PDF and sell it on Buy Me a Coffee | Oct 18, 2026

  10. Building machines that work with other machines | Oct 12, 2026

  11. Building out my agent skills course and rethinking product skills | Oct 8, 2026

  12. AI Book Club recording: I Am Not a Robot by Joanna Stern | Sep 20, 2026

  13. Six new books in tech comm: a roundup | Sep 7, 2026

  14. Buying a car in the age of AI | Sep 7, 2026

  15. Why biking to work fails when commuting from Renton to Seattle | Sep 5, 2026

  16. Writing for an audience of agents — podcast with Ethan Palm from Mintlify | Sep 2, 2026

  17. Review of The MANIAC, by Benjamin Labatut -- thoughts on logic and the end of play | Aug 20, 2026

  18. AI Book Club recording of The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut | Aug 16, 2026

  19. Reflections on Ai4 conference - some absences from a tech writer's POV | Aug 9, 2026

  20. Orchestrating docs instead of writing them yourself — podcast with Sarah Deaton of Anthropic | Aug 2, 2026

  21. Building out a course on agent skills | Jul 21, 2026

  22. The gap between academic and industry technical writing: What it is, why it exists, why it's important, and what we can do about it (Part II) | Jul 12, 2026

  23. The gap between academic and industry technical writing: What it is, why it exists, why it's important, and what we can do about it (Part I) | Jul 12, 2026

  24. Tom's opinionated guide to skill building 101 | Jun 30, 2026

  25. AI Book Club discussion of The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby | Jun 28, 2026

  26. Judging beautiful docs, AI fatigue, and tool slop -- podcast with Fabrizio | May 31, 2026

  27. Review of Max Tegmark's 'Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence' | May 17, 2026

  28. AI Book Club discussion recording of 'Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence', by Max Tegmark | May 17, 2026

  29. Developing internal skills for recurring documentation processes like release notes | May 4, 2026

  30. Looking back at the AI Book Club one year in | Apr 28, 2026

  31. On pace and value -- why is moving slow boring? | Apr 27, 2026

  32. Frenetic thinking | Apr 26, 2026

  33. Work expands to fill the space allotted | Apr 26, 2026

  34. Too much coffee? | Apr 24, 2026

  35. AI Book Club discussion recording of 'Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future', by Dan Wang | Apr 23, 2026

  36. Some thoughts after using AI to help with taxes | Apr 20, 2026

  37. Podcast: How valuable are agent skills? Conversation with Larah Vasquez and Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti | Apr 12, 2026

  38. The Emerging Picture of a Changed Profession: Cyborg Technical Writers — Augmented, Not Replaced, by AI | Apr 5, 2026

  39. Will tech writers survive AI? Perspectives from two professors, Nupoor Ranade and Jeremy Merritt | Mar 21, 2026

  40. AI Book Club recording of 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies' | Mar 17, 2026

  41. Recording of Automation Engineering 101 for Tech Docs presentation at WTD West Coast Supermeetup | Mar 12, 2026

  42. Cracking the code on corporate visibility | Mar 8, 2026

  43. Podcast: Doc testing, skills files, and the guardians of knowledge -- with Manny Silva | Mar 8, 2026

  44. Nobody knows what it will look like in 2 years | Mar 3, 2026

  45. Good shot, GUS!!!! How to win at pickup basketball even if you're not all that great | Mar 1, 2026

  46. 10 principles of the cyborg technical writer -- brief notes and bullet points on how to use AI to augment your role | Feb 27, 2026

  47. World Brain: No Experts podcast - Three tech writers and a photographer walk into a bar (with Tom Johnson and Floyd Jones) | Feb 25, 2026

  48. Using curiosity to decenter | Feb 16, 2026

  49. AI Book Club recording, notes, and transcript for Sarah Wynn-Williams's Careless People | Feb 16, 2026

  50. Bakhtin and model collapse: How to use AI with expressive writing without generating AI slop | Jan 30, 2026

  51. Podcast: Tech comm predictions for 2026 (Phase One) | Jan 25, 2026

  52. AI Book Club recording of God, Human, Animal, Machine | Jan 24, 2026

  53. Podcast: Writing as telepathy: AI tools, automation, and an intentionally offline life -- conversation with CT Smith | Jan 4, 2026

  54. Book review of 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies'—why AI doom isn't as visceral as nuclear war | Jan 3, 2026

  55. 12 predictions for tech comm in 2026 | Jan 1, 2026

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About Tom Johnson

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.

© 2026 Tom Johnson