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Book review of Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, by Ben Goldfarb

Although I don’t work in road ecology or traffic engineering, the author somehow pulled me through 300 pages on this topic. He managed this not just through vivid language and diction, but by personally visiting places and telling stories about the specific challenges that animals, “carers,” forest service workers, and others faced as freeways and highways bisected and dissected their environments.

Countering AGI with superintelligent docs?

Barista analogy

To use an analogy, suppose you’re a barista making espresso coffee. An AGI-capable robot trained as a barista is able to make all the coffee that a regular barista can make but twice as fast. Further, the Android barista can create exquisite espresso art in any shape that humans request, wowing them and making the experience novel. Soon the human barista is replaced. After all, the paying customer would rather pay $2.50 for a robot to make a latte instead of $5.00, especially when it tastes the same.

Do developers need code samples in API documentation?

Most code samples in documentation are fairly basic, which is by design. Documentation tries to show the most common use of the API, not advanced scenarios for an enterprise-grade app whose complexity would easily overwhelm developers. (At that point, you end up with a sample app.)

Links from around the web: vibecoding, 60-hour work weeks, smaller internet communities, ethical compromises, and expertise

Vibecoding

Not a Coder? With A.I., Just Having an Idea Can Be Enough. By Kevin Roose, New York Times, Feb 27, 2025.

Fixing bugs without thinking, Recursive Self-Improvement, and the shift towards more complex tech comm tasks

Fixing bugs without thinking

With AI tools built directly into your authoring tool or IDE (such as VS Code), fixing simple doc bugs can become a mechanical, click-button task. Here’s the approach to fixing simple doc bugs:

Review of Divided Highways, by Tom Lewis — and some thoughts on techno-utopian disillusionment

(Note: The fact that I’m writing a book review on this topic might seem odd given that I usually focus on tech comm topics. However, I document APIs for getting map data into cars, so I sometimes read books related to the automotive and transportation domain. I also run a book club at work focused on these books.)

Rethinking traditional approaches to release notes -- recording of WTD Australia presentation

Listen here:

Is AI eroding slow mode? Push-button solutions versus thought partners, and approaches to challenging writing tasks

Is AI eroding slow mode?

During the past few weeks, I’ve felt like my brain’s RPMs have been in the red zone. Granted, the constant stream of chaotic political news hasn’t helped—but regardless of current political events, I’m frequently checking the news, my email, and chat messages and operating in a mode that isn’t great. Reading long-form books has proven to be difficult. I run a book club at work focused on automotive and transportation books, and it took me two months to make it through a single book (granted, it was a 300-page historically dense book, but still).

Using AI with issue tracking systems (prompt engineering series)

Read the full article here: Using AI with issue tracking systems.

My 2025 trends predictions for tech comm

This post is also available as an AI-generated podcast from NotebookLM:

Using AI to mine log messages from reference doc builds (Prompt engineering series)

Read the post: Using AI to mine log messages from reference doc builds.

Biohacking your glucose with AI

Biohacking experiment

“Biohacking” might be a pretentious cyber term for what is otherwise a straightforward experiment. For 10 days, I tracked my food and exercise levels while also wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to track my glucose levels. I then used AI to pair up the food + exercise with the glucose readings and perform an analysis about triggers for glucose spikes and recommendations to avoid them.

AI stream journaling experiment

The prompt

I want you to act as my AI stream journal (similar to a bullet journal), for the day. In this chat session, I’ll log 3 kinds of notes: tasks, thoughts, and events. Tasks are to-do list items. Thoughts are random ideas or notes I have. Events consist of food eaten, exercise, or descriptions of my internal states. The point is to have an easy way to dump all the scattered information in my head into a central log that you organize and analyze on my behalf.

Q&A about adoc Studio, with Frank Blome

Note: This is a sponsored post.

Q&A about Paligo -- modern CCMS -- with VP of Product Rasmus Petersson

Note: This is a sponsored post.

Menlo Park API Workshop Video Recording

Last updated: Jun 21, 2019

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I recorded this full-day API documentation in Menlo Park, California, on November 8, 2018. (For more details, see this blog post.) This recording closely aligns with the latest content and activities in this course. I divided this all-day workshop into five separate videos.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Audio only version

Note: For the most recent workshop recording, see the Video recordings of API doc workshops.

Video 1

Video 2

Smart technical documentation with easy content reuse.

All-in-one platform to create, share, and manage your documentation

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Audio only version

If you prefer audio only, you can listen here:

Video 1 of 5:

Video 2 of 5:

Video 3 of 5:

Video 4 of 5:

Video 5 of 5:

Redoc.ly: Transform your API definition into interactive documentation, fast

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.

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