Here I provide over 30 real-life examples of how I'm using AI on a daily basis, not just for technical writing tasks but more broadly in life, including summarizing content, explaining concepts, answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and having engaging conversations. In my view, AI use cases are ubiquitous, equivalent to the use cases for computers or the Internet in general. In other words, the use cases apply to nearly every aspect of writing, learning, creativity, research, and more ..read more

I'm participating in a webinar called Let's Talk API Docs with Scott Abel, Mark Wentowski, and Kartik Balasubramanian on December 13 at 8am PST. The panel discussion will cover a wide array of topics, such as limitations of autogenerated API documentation, security in API docs, tailoring documentation to user needs. We also might discuss challenges like standardizing API documentation as well as opportunities for improving the developer experience ..read more

In this podcast, I talk with Ed Marsh about podcasting. You may have listened to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast previously. As an experienced podcaster, Ed has a lot of insights and thoughts about podcasting. We discuss what initially drew him to start podcasting, why podcasters often go on hiatus, the equipment and logistics involved in podcasting, different formats that engage listeners (from co-hosts to single person podcasts, and more), incorporating AI tools, the ongoing appeal of podcasting, and more ..read more

In this post, I delve into my insights from 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' (ZAMM), focusing on integrating intuitive thinking into technical writing. I begin with the ZAMM narrator's anecdote about why his friend John refuses to do motorcycle maintenance to illustrate the book's central theme of forming a deeper, more peace-of-mind style connection with technology. I then transition into sharing personal experiences trying to incorporate this mindset. This post contrasts two approaches: one that embraces hands-on interaction with technology and another that avoids it ..read more

I recently decided to reread a classic in the tech comm field: Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, nearly 50 years after it was first published. I wondered if Pirsig had more insights about technical writing than I initially understood when I first read the book long ago. In this introduction to an upcoming series, I list a few parallels and questions I'm hoping to answer ..read more

I'm giving a webinar titled 'Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective' on December 8, 2023. The webinar is sponsored by the STC Washington, DC - Baltimore Chapter. In this presentation, I’ll share some personal experiences in using AI for different writing-related use cases, explaining what I’ve found helpful. These use cases and takeaways are all experiential, based on my experiments with using AI both in the workplace for documentation-related scenarios and writing on my blog ..read more

In this short podcast, I explore using AI tools to do research, the potential for fake URLs, and how to deal with the fabrication. I started by using Claude to summarize a podcast and provide a list of salient points, including the potential counterargument. What I didn't expect was for Claude to fabricate a list of imagined research and then summarize the fictitious research to conclude that it lended support for the counterargument. I took Claude's list of research and pasted it into ChatGPT with Bing to browse the real-time web to validate the sources. Using Claude and ChatGPT in combinatio ..read more

Speakeasy is a platform aimed at simplifying the creation and consumption of APIs. Its primary product is the creation of SDKs (client libraries), but its new offering (and most relevant to technical writers) is the 'Code as Docs' product. Their Code as Docs product embeds SDKs into the traditional API reference, providing users with code snippets in 8+ languages and bridging the gap between documentation and real-world applications. This post is a Q&A with Sagar Batchu, CEO and co-founder of Speakeasy ..read more

In Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, Chris and Melissa Bruntlett describe how the Dutch achieved so much cycling success, and how other cities might do the same. The authors bring up a variety of techniques and approaches the Dutch have used, such as seamlessly integrating cycling with public transit, pursuing customized strategies based on each city's unique landscape and culture, taking an iterative approach to infrastructure, using tactical urbanism and prototyping, and more ..read more

The Movemate board fits into the genre of work-focused standing boards designed to reduce fatigue while standing at a computer. This Movemate review is a bit different from the normal tech comm content on my blog, but I believe it's just as relevant. If you're sitting right now, does your back hurt a bit? Do your legs feel like they've been shut off and are atrophying? Are you tired of sitting all day every day in front of a screen? It doesn't have to be like that ..read more