What docs as code really means

I’ve been using large language models (LLMs) for a while now. They accelerate and improve my output at work, to the point that losing access to them would make me feel slightly impaired in some areas. Rather than fearing WriterBot, I’m embracing the additional capabilities it grants. At the same time, I’m extremeley conscious of their...

Some months ago I wrote a post about open source docs contributions. My dear colleague Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler) found that to be a good topic for a webinar, so today I hosted Contributing to Open Source Documentation Projects, where I expanded my thoughts on the topic and provided some practical guidance. You can also download the slides...

I’ve recently found out about TypeSpec, a new language aimed at describing web APIs, through an interview that bears the provocative title of API Design in the Post-OpenAPI Era. Leaving aside the fact that OpenAPI is very much alive, what left me stupefied was the assertion that OpenAPI files should be “automatically generated artifacts and...

What does it mean to fail as a technical writer? How does one get up again? How can we correct course and rekindle the fire that helped us power through rejections, layoffs, and ostracism? Is there any switch we can toggle so that folks understand what it is that we do and provide us with the resources we need in order to contribute a verse? I’ve...

Last week I had the pleasure of conversing with Niklas Begley from Doctave. It was a follow-up to The Pros and Cons of Markdown, focused on why Markdown and other lightweight markup languages could benefit from some structure, in the DITA sense, but without going the XML way. Hint: There could be a bit of JSON schemas involved.