I’ve been doing the technical writing thing since 1995, and I’ve learned a thing or two:

Good technical writers are empathetic, curious, and know how to pester engineers without pissing them off.

You don’t need a “technical writing degree” to be a technical writer. Most come to it from other professions anyway.

Technical writing is not as boring as formatting a phone book. Nor is it as poetic as writing haikus. But even a phone book can be delivered poetically by a good writer.

Most of the time I feel like I know nothing. It’s what drives me to dive deep into each new writing project, figure it out, and then pass on what I’ve learned to someone who has the same questions I once had.

Software tools come and go. Learn how to give an audience the content they need at the moment they need it, and you’ll have a long career.

But knowing software tools helps. Resume bots love ’em.

That’s all for now. More to come.