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>yet, we competent TWs are supposed to "respect our collaborators" intrinsically
>(hrm, my Websters is outta arm's reach, so that might not be the word or the
>spelling I want), while we TWs have to "earn their respect"?
>I sense a penalty flag being thrown here.
Many tech-writers are WAY too over-sensitive on this point. In
fact, they're obsessed. Yes, I've met several programmers that I
would have loved to feed to the crocodiles, but other programmers
felt the same way about them. I've met far more who were willing
to concede that communicating with an audience was a mystery to
them, and one that they were happy to leave to me.
Of course you have to earn respect, no matter who you are. You
don't get it automatically, or with a job title. The same goes
for programmers. And getting the respect takes time, no matter
who you are. But every personality clash isn't Armageddon, and
slights can be imagined as well as real.
(exit, mouthing platitudes)
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com | Tel: 604.421.7189
"Theirs is a land of Hope and Glory,
Mine is the green fields and the factory floors,
Theirs are the skies, all dark with bombers,
Mine is the peace we knew between the wars."
- Billy Bragg, "Between the Wars."