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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

#81

Post by EagnaIonat »

codesparkle wrote: post #41

It’s not so much that AI is replacing “tech writers”; with all due respect to the individuals in those roles, it was never a good title to identify as. Technical writing is part of the job of software engineering. Just like “tester” or “DBA”, it was always going to go the way of the dodo. If you’re a technical writer, now’s the time to reinvent yourself.

> Technical writing is part of the job of software engineering.

Where I work we have professional technical writers and the quality vs your typical SW engineer is night and day. Maybe you got lucky with the rare SW engineer that can technical write.

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

#82

Post by ainiriand »

duskdozer wrote: post #56
jraph wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right! It's not just the brain shutoffs—it's the feeling of death inside.

Sure! Here are some ways you can deal with the feeling of death inside, otherwise known as "brain shutoffs": - description>> Is there anything else I can help you with?

Damn, you are terrible!

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

#83

Post by topaz0 »

FeteCommuniste wrote: post #64
DeborahWrites wrote: post #21

Yeah. AI might replace tech writers (just like it might replace anyone), but it won't be a GOOD replacement. The companies with the best docs will absolutely still have tech writers, just with some AI assistance. Tech writing seems especially vulnerable to people not really understanding the job (and then devaluing it, because "everybody can write" - which, no, if you'll excuse the slight self-promotion but it saves…

> AI might replace tech writers (just like it might replace anyone), but it won't be a GOOD replacement. [insert Pawn Stars meme]: "GOOD docs? Sorry, best I can do is 'slightly better than useless.'"

with the occasional "much worse than useless" thrown in as a bonus

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

#84

Post by lillecarl »

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

A good amount != this. AI being able to do the easy parts of something doesn't replace the hard ones.

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

#85

Post by alameenpd »

apercu wrote: post #43
nicbou wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. We are seeing a transition from the user as a customer to the user as a resource. It's almost like a cartel of shitty treatment. I don't work for the public transit company; I introduce immigrants to Berlin's public transit. To answer to the broader question, good documentation is one of the many little things that affect how you feel about a company. The BVG clearly cares about that, because their mar…

“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

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

#86

Post by ainiriand »

jraph wrote: post #25
ainiriand wrote: post #20

And here I am, 2026, and one of my purposes for this year is to learn to write better, communicate more fluently, and convey my ideas in a more attractive way. I do not think that these skills are so easily replaced; certainly the machine can do a lot, but if you acquire those skills yourself you shape your brain in a way that is definitely useful to you in many other aspects of life. In my humble opinion we will be…

> but if you acquire those skills yourself you shape your brain in a way that is definitely useful to you in many other aspects of life. Yep, and reading you will feel less boring. The uniform style of LLMs gets old fast and I wouldn't be surprised if it were a fundamental flaw due to how they work. And it's not even sure speed gains from using LLMs make up for the skill loss in the long term.

It is such a challenge! As English is not my first language I have to do some mind gimnastics to really convey my thoughts. 'On writing well' is on my list to read, it is supposed to help.

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

#88

Post by DeepSeaTortoise »

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…

Why shouldn't AI be able to sufficiently model all of this in the not far future? Why shouldn't have it have sufficient access to new data and sensors to be able to collect information on its own, or at least the system that feeds it?

Not from a moral perspective of course, but the technical possibility. And the overton window has shifted already so far, the moral aspect might align soon, too.

IMO there is an entirely different problem, that's not going to go away just about ever, but could be solved right now easily. And whatever AI company does so first instantly wipes out all competition:

Accept full responsibility and liability for any damages caused by their model making wrong decisions and either not meeting a minimum quality standard or the agreed upon quality.

You know, just like the human it'd replace.

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

#90

Post by arionmiles »

throwaw12 wrote: post #70

I will share my experience, hopefully it answers some questions to tech writers. I was terrible writer, but we had to write good docs and make it easy for our customers to integrate with our products. So, I prepared the context to our tech writers and they have created nice documentation pages. The cycle was (reasonably takes 1 week, depending on tech writer workload): 1. prepare context 2. create ticket to tech writ…

If you're getting such value out of LLMs, I'm intrigued to learn more about what exactly it is that you're feeding them.

People boast about the gains with LLMs all the damn time and I'm sceptical of it all unless I see their inputs.

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