What does it mean to be technical?

[Goober Writer <gooberwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

It seems like there's been a lot of discussion over
the years about what makes a true technical writer.
But really, what does it mean to be technical?

Does it mean you can assemble a PC from scratch?

Does it mean you can set up a home LAN?

Does it mean you can program in C#?

I say no, but all that *can* help.

But, being technical does mean you need to think
critically about technology. That's all that really
matters. Anything deeper is potential icing on the
cake, so to speak.

I don't need to know how to write in C# or even read
C# in order to be able to understand what the
application is intended to do. I mean, what is code,
really? Is it some cryptic form of expression that
takes strong intellect to comprehend?

No.

It's a set of instructions designed to tell a set of
circuits to do something. That's it. Nothing more.

If you can think critically about technology, then you
are in fact technical.

One thing I hate is having someone say I'm not
technical enough. I always question them. Why aren't I
techical enough? What are you using to measure
"technical"? Usually a response is tossed back like
"you can't read code", to which I reply "should I have
to in order to understand what you are doing?" 

The answer is "no".

Code is there to instruct a machine to solve a
problem. If I understand the problem and the route to
the solution, I'm good to go. If I can read code to
boot, well, I can read code too then.

=====
Goober Writer
(because life is too short to be inept)

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