Re: The debate that won't die

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Jan Henning" wrote 

> I'm not sure about points 1 and 2, but my personal impression has 
> always been that (good) communication skills are harder to learn than 
> technical skills.

That explains why all those tech writers are getting hired left and right and
all those physicists, engineers, and programmers are being let go. 

> Good communication skills not only include the ability to write 
> grammatically correct sentences, they also include things like ordering 
> the material at hand in a logical and accessible way, making sure that 
> all required information is there, and making sure that no superfluous 
> information is included.

That is hardly a comparison to the decades of experience it takes to become a
skilled programmer, electrical engineer, or scientist. I have a friend who is a
software engineer for a large company. He worked for over a decade to get the
skills this job demands. And probably 100 people in the world can do what he
does. He is paid well and has relative job security. In the same time he has
been there, his department has hired and fired 4 technical writers. 

You're going to tell me that my friend's technical and engineering skills are
easier to acquire than the ability to use FrameMaker. That the capability to
design complex electronic circuits and logic gates is "easy" compared to the
ability to "organize text." 

Sorry, but that is just patently false. Having been both a writer and an
engineer, I can honestly say that writing has its challenges, but it simply
does not compare to engineering work in terms of difficulty. 

That does not degrade the importance or value of good writing. But it puts it
into perspective both in terms of qualifications and expectations in the market
place. 

> These skills seem to be beyond a significant number of people. With 
> some people I have known (even with some technical writers) I had the 
> impresssion that no amount of time would have enabled them to 
> communicate well in the above sense. I'm not sure why this is so; one 
> possible reason may be a psychological inability to put themselves into 
> the shoes of another person (the reader).

Or obsession with insignificant issues - like maturity models and fonts. 

> Whatever the reason may be, there seem to be more people who do not 
> 'have it in them' to advance above a certain level of communication 
> capability than there are people who are incapable of learning enough 
> about technology.

Again, this is a measure of what is in demand. I'd agree that more people are
pursuing technical skills these days. That's because those skills are more
valuable in the market. 

Andrew Plato 

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