Defining bug zero and two obstacles: Reducing review time and gathering context

In my previous post about achieving bug zero, I introduced the goal and some motivations for it, but I didn't fully articulate the whole connection to AI. I also didn't explain much of what a doc bug queue is in my context, or why it even matters. In this post, I'll define doc bugs in more depth and explore two major obstacles to accelerating documentation work: review time and context gathering. Read more »

Recording of AI Book Club discussion about Kai-fu Lee's AI Superpowers

This is a recording of our AI Book Club session discussing Kai-Fu Lee's AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. There are 4 people in this book club discussion, and our conversation focuses on the emerging AI duopoly between the US and China. We share our own US-centric blind spots and weigh the political and cultural implications of China potentially winning the AI race. We also talk about Kai-Fu Lee's prediction of mass job displacement and his proposed social investment stipend, questioning both its feasibility and its potential drawbacks. The discussion also explores how our own professional roles, particularly in tech comm, might evolve to manage and direct AI rather than be replaced by it, and how surprisingly relevant the book feels today despite being published in 2018. Read more »

Why getting to bug zero is so hard

In the pursuit of bug zero, it helps to identify different types of bugs and the right strategies for dealing with each of them. In this post, I explore four common types of complex bugs I've encountered: Russian-doll bugs, scope-creep bugs, non-actionable bugs, and wrong-owner bugs. Read more »

Recording of Coffee and Content episode: What's wrong with AI-generated docs?

I recently appeared on the Coffee and Content episode, hosted by Scott Abel, with another guest, Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti, who writes a blog at Passo (passo.uno). The episode theme comes from a post Fabrizio wrote titled What's wrong with AI-generated docs, but the episode didn't focus exclusively on AI's problems and gotchas so much as AI strategies with documentation in general. This post provides a recording and transcript of the episode. Read more »

Review of Parmy Olson's Supremacy — and the futility of chasing non-capitalist dreams

This post is my review of Parmy Olson's Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World. Among many possible AI topics, I focus on the sellout aspect of the book, comparing the AI entrepreneurs' sellouts to big tech to fund their massive compute needs to the sellout decisions that creative writers make to tech companies in exchange for liveable salaries. Read more »

Productivity Experiments and Advice: Continuing the Journey with Slow Productivity and Meditations for Mortals — guest post by David Kowalsky

The following is a guest post by David Kowalsky continuing his exploration of productivity and time management topics. This post covers his experiences with Cal Newport's Slow Productivity and Oliver Burkeman's Meditations for Mortals, along with practical experiments and advice for technical writers. Kowalsky considers how these philosophies can help technical writers find more sustainable, meaningful approaches to their work. Read more »

Will our next users be AI agents? The future of content delivery with Fabrice Lacroix, founder of Fluid Topics (podcast)

In this podcast, I chat with Fabrice Lacroix, founder of Fluid Topics, about the evolution of technical communication. Fabrice describes the industry's progression from (1) delivering static, monolithic PDFs to (2) using Content Delivery Platforms (CDPs) that provide dynamic, topic-based information directly to users to (3) developing content not just for human consumption, but for AI agents that will use this knowledge to automate complex tasks and workflows. Read more »

Why attitudes and experiences differ so much with regards to AI among technical writers

Technical writers' attitudes toward AI can be all over the map, from enthusiastic early adoption to cautiously optimistic to complete rejection. In this post, I try to unpack the reasons that lead some writers to believe what they do about AI. Using research from several articles, I look at AI's jagged frontier, the impact of domain expertise, and interaction modes as ways of understanding the influences that lead to different attitudes. Read more »