Re: What to look for in a technical editor

[Michael West <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

From: "Dick Margulis":
 
> I would just add that governing the personal opinions of most people is 
> the natural tendency to exaggerate the importance of what _I_ do well 
> that _you_ do poorly and to discount the importance of what _you_ do 
> well that _I_ do poorly. Recognizing this human quality in ourselves is 
> one marker of maturity.

This is something many of us do, but there
seem to be some particularly acute cases about.

Funny -- in twenty-plus years of preparing technical
materials for publication I've never had a programmer
or engineer come up to me and say "I could do that as
well as you if  I wanted to, but I just don't feel like it."

On the contrary, the usual response is appreciative,
and in some cases even envious. Odd that so much
contempt (or so it seems to be) for our craft seems to
come from Another Person who claims to be a practitioner.

I *have* had a senior project manager (making twice 
my salary) come up to me on what must have been a 
bad day and say, "You know what? If  I could write
worth a damn I'd trade jobs with you in a flash."

--
Michael West
Melbourne


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