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> "Specialization if for insects."
> - Robert A Heinlein, I think in "Time Enough for Love."
> The philosophy persists: specialization embeds you in a rut
> where you risk becoming obsolete. The more you know and the
> more you can do, the more valuable you'll be to an organization.
This is an orthogonal issue. You may or may not want to become a specialist
yourself. If you do become a specialist, this will open up some doors and
close others. For some jobs you certainly have to be a specialist (brain
surgeon, etc.) Generally, the specialists gets paid more and is less likely
to be laid off when times get tough. On the other hand they may be more
likely to be laid off if the company takes a new direction. In the end you
probably make this choice based on how you personally prefer to work.
However, in an industrial setting, specialization of job function is
generally necessary to achieve higher levels of productivity. It can be
overdone, of course. But tech writers currently work under cottage industry
conditions. While many enjoy working that way, it is simply inefficient.
Companies can generally improve writer productivity by moving to
markup-based systems in which writers do only research and writing and other
people (or machines) handle publishing chores.
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Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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