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I read the reviews... And it sounds to me (without having watched) that
it is a caricature of the stereotypical idea of a technical writer
(introverted, neurotic and a geek)... But just the reviews are enough to
turn me off to the movie.
Having said that, it made me think of my own research a few years back
when I was doing my MA in technical communication... My thesis was on
the personality characteristics of technical communicators. It surveyed
over 220 technical communicators from around the world. I used a
validated personality test based on the five-factor model of personality
along with a questionnaire about each person's professional practice,
and a demographics section.
I mention this, because of the whole issue of the stereotypical
introverted technical writer. My findings were the exact opposite of
what we would expect to see. The majority of writers were extroverted.
When I correlated professional practice to the personality
characteristics, it appeared that effectiveness improved with
extroversion, with managers being the most extroverted. The majority of
introverts were editors (made sense to me), and only a few rated
negatively with regards to what the five-factor model called
neuroticism. Interestingly, those few writers ranked low in professional
practice.
I share this because from the little I know of the movie, it seems to
draw on the stereotype that we are all introverted and neurotic.
Now, it is possible that when compared to others of the general
population, we are more introverted (I only compared technical writers
to technical writers since it is us I was interested in) - and I have to
admit I've met my share of "unusual" technical writers... But I've met
doctors and engineers who are just as quirky as we can be, just quirky
in different ways.
The majority of technical writers I've worked with and known tend to be
far more extroverted than introverted, and all of us have been quite
opinionated on a number of issues. But we sure know how to argue and
discuss our points, and if given an intelligent reason to change, I've
seen colleagues really strive to improve - and quickly. (My research
also supported this).
So my guess is that this movie should have flopped - since if it had
succeeded, based on what I've read - it would have given people a skewed
view of who we are and what we really do.
Anyway, that is just my two cents worth on this first day of work in
September of 2008...
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