Notes ➤
I write documentation for a living. Although my output is writing, my job is to observe, listen and empathise. That demands the sort of compassion only a human being can feel.
I revise my local public transit guide every time I board a foreign bus. I improve my writing by walking in my readers’ shoes and feeling their confusion. Empathy drives my work.
Most of my information comes from a network of people I have a built relationships with, and from a large and trusting audience. This infrastructure took years to build. AI can only report what someone was bothered to write down, but I actually go out in the real world and ask questions.
I have built tools to collect people’s experience at the immigration office. I have had many conversations with lawyers and other experts. I have interviewed hundreds of my readers. I have put a lot of information on the internet for the first time. AI writing is only as good as the data it feeds on. I hunt for my own data.
People who think that AI can do the work technical writers have an almost insulting understanding of the jobs they are trying to replace.