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To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

passo.uno

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Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#181

Post by elzbardico »

squigz wrote: post #120
elzbardico wrote: post #110

A somewhat related anecdote: Two years ago, I asked chatgpt to rewrite my resume. It looked fantastic at a first sight, then, one week later I re-read it, and feel ashamed to have sent it to some prospective employers. It was full of cringe inducing babble. You see, for an LLM there are no hierarchies other than what it observed in their training, and even then, applying it in a different context may be tricky for th…

You had an LLM rewrite your resume, and then sent it to employers... without proofreading it? That was certainly a choice.

I read it. It seemed perfect. I am enthusiastic about new tech, so probably on my first read I overlooked things that later started bugging me

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#182

Post by samiv »

helloaltalt wrote: post #175
samiv wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah more people can afford shitty things that end up in the landfill two weeks later. To me this is the essence of "consumerism". Rather than think in terms of making things cheaper for people to afford we should think how to produce wealthier people who could afford better than the cheapest of cheapest crap.

But in the context of softwares, the landfill argument doesn't fit exactly well (well, sure someone can argue that storage on say, github might take more drives but the scale would be very cheaper than say landfill filled with physical things as well > Rather than think in terms of making things cheaper for people to afford we should think how to produce wealthier people who could afford better than the cheapest of c…

Re software and landfill.. true to some extent but there are still ramifications as you pointed out electricity demand and hardware infrastructure to support it. Also in the 80's when the computer games market crashed they literally dumped games cartridges in a hole in the desert!

Maybe my opinion is just biased and I'm in the comfortable position to pass judgment but I'd like to believe that more people would be more ethical and conscious about their materialistic needs if things had more value and were better quality and instead of focusing on the "price" as the primary value proposition people were actually able to afford to buy other than the cheapest of things.

Wouldn't the economy also be in much better shape if more people could buy things such as handmade shoes or suits?

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#183

Post by nicbou »

rtgfhyuj wrote: post #77
nicbou wrote: post #26

I write documentation for a living. Although my output is writing, my job is observing, listening and understanding. I can only write well because I have an intimate understanding of my readers' problems, anxieties and confusion. This decides what I write about, and how to write about it. This sort of curation can only come from a thinking, feeling human being. I revise my local public transit guide every time I expe…

sounds like a bunch of agents can do a good amount of this. A high horse isn’t necessary

I wonder how you have reached this conclusion without having the faintest idea of what I write about.

Nonetheless, I live from that work. If you are correct, there's a fair bit of money on the table for you.

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#184

Post by killerstorm »

drob518 wrote: post #23

The best tech writers I have worked with don’t merely document the product. They act as stand-ins for actual users and will flag all sorts of usability problems. They are invaluable. The best also know how to start with almost no engineering docs and to extract what they need from 1-1 sit down interviews with engineering SMEs. I don’t see AI doing either of those things well.

True.

Also true that most tech writers are bad. And companies aren't going to spend >$200k/year on a tech writer until they hit tens of millions in revenue. So AI fills the gap.

As a horror story, our docs team didn't understand that having correct installation links should be one of their top priorities. Obviously if a potential customer can't install product, they'd assume it's bs and try to find an alternative. It's so much more important than e.g. grammar in a middle of some guide.

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#185

Post by publicdebates »

fainpul wrote: post #125
publicdebates wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Word for word, 53 minutes later? Why? I have exactly 1 guess but am waiting to say it.

His other comment in this thread is also a clone of someone else's comment.

And it happened after I wrote that comment.

Which means I replied to a bot.

I am officially retiring from social media.

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#186

Post by apercu »

randmeerkat wrote: post #58
apercu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It's almost like a cartel of shitty treatment.” Thank you. I love it when someone poetically captures a feeling I’ve been having so succinctly.

> Thank you. I love it when someone poetically captures a feeling I’ve been having so succinctly. It’s almost like they’re a professional writer…

Just giving a human a compliment.

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#187

Post by squigz »

elzbardico wrote: post #181
squigz wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had an LLM rewrite your resume, and then sent it to employers... without proofreading it? That was certainly a choice.

I read it. It seemed perfect. I am enthusiastic about new tech, so probably on my first read I overlooked things that later started bugging me

Ah I see I myself misread that you re-read it. My mistake. That's a lot more understandable in my opinion than simply not reading it at all :P

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#188

Post by apercu »

alameenpd wrote: post #85
apercu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It's almost like a cartel of shitty treatment.” Thank you. I love it when someone poetically captures a feeling I’ve been having so succinctly.

It’s almost like they are a professional writer

Thanks for reinforcing the point. Repetition is always the clearest form of insight.

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#189

Post by InMice »

marcosdumay wrote: post #128
InMice wrote: post #22

Is it expected that LLMs will continue to improve over time? All the recent articles like this one just seem to describe this technology's faults as fixed and permanent. Basically saying "turn around and go no further". Honestly asking because their arguments seem to be dependent on improvement never happening and never overcoming any faults. It feels shortsighted.

> Is it expected that LLMs will continue to improve over time? By whom? Your expectations aren't the same everybody has.

I dont have any expectations. Thats why I was asking

Re: To those who fired or didn't hire tech writers because of AI

#190

Post by helloaltalt »

samiv wrote: post #182
helloaltalt wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in the context of softwares, the landfill argument doesn't fit exactly well (well, sure someone can argue that storage on say, github might take more drives but the scale would be very cheaper than say landfill filled with physical things as well > Rather than think in terms of making things cheaper for people to afford we should think how to produce wealthier people who could afford better than the cheapest of c…

Re software and landfill.. true to some extent but there are still ramifications as you pointed out electricity demand and hardware infrastructure to support it. Also in the 80's when the computer games market crashed they literally dumped games cartridges in a hole in the desert! Maybe my opinion is just biased and I'm in the comfortable position to pass judgment but I'd like to believe that more people would be mor…

> Re software and landfill.. true to some extent but there are still ramifications as you pointed out electricity demand and hardware infrastructure to support it. Also in the 80's when the computer games market crashed they literally dumped games cartridges in a hole in the desert!

I hear ya but I wonder how that reflects on Open source software which was the GP request created by LLM let's say. Yes I know it can have bugs but its free of cost and you can own it and modify it with source code availability and run it on your own hardware

There really isn't much of a difference in terms of hardware/electricity just because of these Open source projects

But probably some for LLM's so its a little tricky but I feel like open source projects/ running far with ideas gets incentivized

Atleast I feel like its one of the more acceptable uses of LLM in so far. Its better because you are open sourcing it for others to run. If someone doesn't want to use it, that's their freedom but you built it for yourself or running with an idea which couldn't have existed if you didn't know the details on implementations or would have taken months or years for 0 gains when now you can do it in less time

It significantly improves to see which ideas would be beneficial or not and I feel like if AI is so worrying then if an idea is good and it can be tested, it can always be rewritten or documented heavily by a human. In fact there are even job posts about slop janitor on linkedin lol

> Wouldn't the economy also be in much better shape if more people could buy things such as handmade shoes or suits?

Yes but also its far from happening and would require a real shake up in all things and its just a dream right now. i agree with ya but its not gonna happen or not something one can change, trust me I tried.

This requires system wide change that one person is very unlikely to bring but I wish you best in your endeavour

But what I can do on a more individualistic freedom level is create open source projects via LLM's if there is a concept I don't know of and then open sourcing it for the general public and if even one to two people find it useful, its all good and I am always experimenting.

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