Re: Damnit Jim, I'm a technical writer, not a writer!

["Lurker writer" <lurker_writer -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I see lots of parallels in this discussion with my days as a home builder.

In the early 70s, while taking a 5-year break from college, I got involved 
in the building trades. I was a carpenter in South Florida and I built 
custom luxury homes along the Intercoastal Waterway and neighboring canals 
in Ft. Lauderdale. To build a house, not only did I have to have strong 
carpentry skills (lots of "applications of geometry")and building code 
knowledge, but I had to know a little something about plumbing and 
electrical because the guys in those trades often shared the same workspace 
with me on a project. I had to know how my work impacted theirs and 
vice-versa. I picked up just enough knowledge of both trades to be able to 
successfully meet their requirements, such as building a frame with exact 
dimensions for a jacuzzi tub or knowing where to place wood spacers between 
2x4s so the electricians could attach switch boxes.

I learned by asking questions and 99% of the time, the guys were more than 
willing to answer them, usually by showing me.

There are some carpenters who just work on bulding houses; others who work 
just on building hi-rises (mostly building plywood forms and placing steel 
bars inside the forms for reinforcing concrete). And still others who focus 
on hanging doors, installing cabinets and shelves, and attaching baseboards. 
Each is a specialized carpentry skill and knowledge area and the people 
involved work with various "SMEs" of other fields. And the more they know 
about what the other trades need from them, the more skilled and highly 
valued they become.




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