The Emerging Picture of a Changed Profession: Cyborg Technical Writers — Augmented, Not Replaced, by AI

I recently gave a presentation to students and faculty in person at Louisiana Tech University on March 30, 2026, focusing on what I call the cyborg model of technical writing. The idea is that the emerging model for tech writing isn't one in which AI replaces tech writers but rather one in which AI augments tech writers. Tech writers interact with AI in a continuous back-and-forth, conversational, iterative manner. This post contains the recording, slides, transcript, summary, notes, and more from my presentation. Read more »

Will tech writers survive AI? Perspectives from two professors, Nupoor Ranade and Jeremy Merritt

In this podcast, I chat with two professors — Nupoor Ranade (Carnegie Mellon) and Jeremy Merritt (James Madison University) — about how AI is reshaping the technical writing profession from the academic side. We discuss dropping enrollments, misconceptions about what tech writers do, historical parallels to past disruptions, agentic AI and organizational restructuring, the cyborg model of human-machine collaboration, and how academics and practitioners can bridge the divide to solve real problems together. Read more »

AI Book Club recording of 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies'

This is a recording of our AI Book Club discussion of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Will Kill Us All by Nate Soares and Eliezer Yudkowsky, held March 15, 2026. Our discussion touches on a variety of topics, including whether the book's use of parables strengthens or weakens its argument, the question of whether AI can develop genuine intentions, the competitive dynamics that prevent any single company from pumping the brakes, the limits of recursive self-improvement, and what ordinary people should make of wildly conflicting predictions from leading AI thinkers. This post also includes discussion questions, key themes, and a full transcript. Read more »

Recording of Automation Engineering 101 for Tech Docs presentation at WTD West Coast Supermeetup

I recently gave a presentation titled Automation Engineering 101 for Tech Docs at the Write the Docs West Coast Supermeetup. I was one of two presenters. The talk covers seven principles for designing repeatable doc processes that AI can execute, using release notes automation as a running example. This post has the recording, slides, transcript, and a narrative summary of the talk. Read more »

Cracking the code on corporate visibility

If you create content and share it with people around you, whether it's blog posts and podcasts on the web, or educational offerings internally at your company, you become much more visible to those around you. That visibility can be helpful in opening doors and expanding opportunities. Read more »

Podcast: Doc testing, skills files, and the guardians of knowledge -- with Manny Silva

In this podcast, Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti (passo.uno) and I chat with Manny Silva (instructionmanuel.com), head of documentation at Skyflow and author of Docs as Tests. Manny is working on a follow-up book that incorporates AI, covering validated generation, trusted agents, and self-healing documentation. Read more »

Nobody knows what it will look like in 2 years

Nobody knows what programming will look like in two years by Charles Humble (published Feb 18, 2026, on LeadDev.com) is an honest, refreshing take from a programmer wrestling with the uncertainty of the future of programming. He looks at historical trends of new technologies (terminals) replacing old ones (punchcards) and grapples with what programming skills are still relevant. The article connects nicely with what I was exploring in 10 principles of the cyborg technical writer. Read more »

Good shot, GUS!!!! How to win at pickup basketball even if you're not all that great

Combining praise with names can have a powerful effect on performance. On the pickup basketball court, the effect can be transformative, making everyone play their best. But it also creates a transformative effect for the one doing the praising, perhaps because it prompts your mind to filter to see more of the good. Read more »