clock watching

I have my dream job: working in Internet/networking/telecom field at a start up company that makes a really cool cutting edge product. I've had jobs that sucked before dealing with boring technology, so I'm in a good place right now.

I've always given myself to the idea that you really have to like your work. You sit in an office for 40+ hours a week, and with the driving time, it's almost more than half your life. There are others who just want a steady paycheck so they can make the most of the rest of their lives. and that's fine for them, but I can't understand it personally.

It makes things that much better when you are excited create or learn about your product.

Now of course there are slow times or boring busy work to get through, but when you complain about nearly all your tasks, something is wrong. Change jobs, position yourself to do something you like, but damn it, you're bring me and my kind down!

I always found it a little bit hard when making small talk with people and the topic of their job comes up. I'm a bit embarrassed to chime in "well I actually like going to work, we make a REALLY cool product.” It's just like in school when most kids would proclaim ‘school sucks, I'd rather be out.’ Well, half of the time I liked school!

This is a perennial argument, I know.

So yes, I like technical writing, and documenting software and hardware. And no, I just don’t do this by day.

Now I can’t speak for other fields, and lets keep this to tech stuff, but sometimes I feel that tech writers are especially guilty of not really having their hearts (or at least a portion of their hearts) in the core work of their job-getting some kind of information from a developer’s mind into a customer’s mind.

Some tech writers like the fact that they have a solid white collar paying job, some like to play editor and correct a poor engineer’s grammar (thereby saying nyah – you don’t know that much more than I do), and some like to layout and design documents. But I swear, I think the vast minority of TWs really don’t love the information transferal part of the job. There’s the aspect of the job where we play the content editor and disseminator, and I think few of us are fixated on that task.

YOU CAN'T USE A SEMICOLON THERE!

At this point, I think my blog will explore the same dozen issues over and over. It may run its course and I'll be done with my thoughts after a set amount of time. But lets move on.

On of my biggest gripes about technical writers is the people who are grammar nazis. If you work in tech, or spend any time in any forum online, you know who I’m talking about - the people who get offended at the deepest levels, or act like you just punched their mother if you punctuate a sentence incorrectly.

Now there are some egregious punctuation errors out there. They are funny to read, and sad because the original author is showing off their ignorance. But come on - laugh at the person, shake your head, and then MOVE THE HELL ON.

The number one rule of writing is: if the person reading your prose understood what information you were trying to convey, then the text was a success in its first goal.

I don't understand it, it's like people feel that language is their domain and feel the need to belittle others when their mastery isn't on par. English (or whatever) as a language is freaking amazing in that it still works with highly imprecise input- unlike math or a programming language. IMHO, there are more important things to do with your passion and anger than correct an adult. Children are a different story :)

Believe me, I am a huge fan of terse and precise writing. However, it is not required, nor should it be fought over in realms outside of published textual media.

Good day

and welcome to my blog.

While I have a great life in livejournal, and I just set up a website for my wife and forthcoming baby to discuss all family things, I wanted to keep a separate blog to discuss all things professional. For me, that profession is technical writing, specifically in the IT/software/telecom field.

So I'll rant about that, and the surrounding technologies.

Sounds like a fun time? I sure hope so.