RE: What does it mean to be technical?

[MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Sharon Burton-Hardin [mailto:sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com]

Not wanting to be the poor fool who disagrees with Sharon, 
especially once she gets enough coffee in her...

> While I agree that you don't need to know code to document a 
> spreadsheet
> program, I totally disagree that you don't need to understand 
> PC issues.
> 
> Folks, regardless of the area of tech writing you work in, 
> you do work with
> your computer every day for hours at a time. Writers who do 
> not understand
> how their box works and how the software works with the stuff 
> in the box are
> at a strong disadvantage.
[...]And 
> for those who
> _are_ technical, now understanding how your tools work is 
> considered a sin.
> That means your IT group and your programmers think you are 
> not technical.
[...]
> Understand how your computer works, down to the board level. 
> Understand how
> software works with the stuff in the box. Take a class, or 
> several, if you
> have to to learn this. This is not time wasted and will gain you great
> respect.

Are you one of those people who doesn't need ongoing usage  
and re-inforcement to keep such knowledge in memory?
There was a time when it was my job to debug computers at the system 
and at the board level (as in scoping and zapping and freezing and 
de-soldering and re-soldering and, and...).  And yet, there are 
plenty of people today who are far more able to look at a computer 
problem (including one that I might be having) and figure out how 
to fix it.  Did I get stupider?  Did the complexity of the tech 
surpass my brain power?       Could be, I suppose.  :-)

More likely, the reason that I call Tech Support when printing, 
or something networkish is misbehaving is very simple:
 - each of the problems that I encounter, I encounter ONCE, 
    or once every ten months (long enough to have forgotten).
 - each of the problems that I encounter, THEY encounter and 
   fix in an approved manner every day and twice on Monday.

If one of them enounters a new-to-them network/server problem 
and, in the process of figuring it out, breaks something for 
the whole office, well it's embarrassing, but it's a learning 
experience and yadda yadda.... ok all fixed now.

If I encounter the same problem and attempt a fix that screws 
up networking for everybody else for half the morning, that's 
me breaking procedure and not doing the job I'm paid for, while 
making Tech Support's job harder.

Division of labor. Praise be!  

If I get to the point where I know modern PCs and networking 
and all the related stuff as well as Peter down in IT Tech Support, 
then it can only be because I'm spending most of my every day 
doing his job, not mine. That, after all, is how he got to be 
as knowledgeable in his field as he is... as compared to how 
knowledgeable in his field I am.

Last year, I had to learn what the current terminology is 
for memory chips, because I needed to deal with a memory 
issue.  But that was then. I haven't opened the box since 
then, except to replace a fan, so I haven't thought about 
the various RAM technologies. In fact, I've forgotten what 
I learned for lack of repetition and re-inforcement. There 
was just no call for it, and my days are full enough that 
I don't make make-work projects for myself... well, other 
than writing to mailing lists, but that's for fun.

If I'm sitting in front of a computer, I can't really TELL you 
what goes on in there, down to the board level, unless I crack 
the cover and see whether it's an integrated MB system or a 
system with separate boards for video, audio, ethernet, etc.
Well, I can if it's a laptop or handheld, cuz they tend to 
be monolithic, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, I know enough to be dangerous, and when I want to 
know some more I either look it up or I *ASK*, and the 
relevant tech specialist is flattered that I came to him/her 
with a semi-intelligent question and is pleased to show off 
her/his knowledge by enlightening me.

Of course, every three months I ask Peter to unfreeze my 
account because I've locked it up during the forced password 
change, and he thinks I'm an idiot until I remind him that 
he set it up for me to work this way for some good reason,  
and then he says "So I'm an idiot." and we both smile at 
the same old joke, and like that.

Well, I think the point that could generalize to our inhouse 
designers and programmers is that they WRITE code or design 
systems every day. Along with natural interest and aptitude, 
that constant re-inforcement of info and technique is what 
keeps them so on-top and in-tune.  It's also why *I* have to 
squint and backtrack and ponder a lot when I need to look 
at a code snippet. And because I don't USE coding skills, 
I can't even keep the different syntax of C and Java and 
whatever in my head. The one I'm looking at this week becomes 
almost familiar and then I'm doing something else next week.
My level of "expertise" is enough that I can follow along 
if they speak clearly and don't jump around the source-code 
too fast. It helps if I accidentally have my editorial eye 
turned on and catch a mismatched declaration or something. 
Woohoo! Points.  :-)

Cheers,

/kevin

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