Re: Arrogance (Was single spacing...)

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

I'm not sure if this is addressed at me, but I am one who chided people
about devoting much time to this. I didn't do that to seem arrogant.

I participate here for two reasons: to help others, and to learn.

I help others by sharing what I've seen, learned, and experienced. I have
worked with a fair number of tech writers. I have managed tech writers.
The most common problem I've encountered in the tech writers with whom
I've worked is their frequent inability to see the big picture: the things
that are really important to their employers. Instead, they obsess over
issues that don't affect the bottom line, that don't affect productivity,
and that often serve to divert their efforts from the primary task for
which they were hired.

So when I come out with a post saying "focus on other things - this stuff
isn't important," I do so in an effort to clue writers in on the notion
that their employers A) probably don't care about this stuff, and B)
probably wouldn't be happy to learn the amount of time, effort, and energy
some writers are willing to devote to this stuff. That's what I've learned
on the job, and that's what I'm trying to pass on to others.

The tech writing gold rush is over. Jobs are scarce and/or being
outsourced, pay is lower, and we are repeatedly called upon to justify our
jobs (and our salaries) to our employers. I contend that focusing on
spaces after periods is not the best way to do that. I offer that view in
an effort to help, not in an effort to seem superior or arrogant.

As always your mileage (or kilometrage, to show how globally I think) may
vary.


Keith Cronin
Arrogant? I'm WAY too hip to be arrogant! 

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