31,329 books
—
119,007 voters
By celebrating anti-social superstar developers, or allowing code to go to production that wasn’t properly tested, or deciding that the only reason the code doesn’t run is because Operations is stupid, we are not doing our best to enable
...more


“How they’re using it is obviously what’s most useful, helpful, and beneficial to them. Instead of struggling to make it be exactly what you want, why not work with them? Learn why that particular process or workflow is most helpful to them.”
― The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success
― The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success
“Consider the following statements from two hypothetical technical writers: "In my professional opinion, the content is clear, concise, correct, and complete. The language is professional, conforms to our style guide, and projects a strong brand. Some of the tables were too wide for print, so we now enforce a two-column limit on all tables. Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the documentation." "The application logs show that the product only has 1,300 users, yet the documentation received 2,400 page views last month. In that same timespan, readers reported six inaccuracies, all of which I resolved within 72 hours. The five most popular search terms return the pages I would expect, and the design team recently helped me optimize the header margins for readability. Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the documentation." I sincerely hope that you find the second argument more compelling. In any field, opinions become more credible when you attach quantitative metrics to them. Documentation is no different.”
― Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation
― Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation
“Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work. And maybe that is the reason why we rarely think about this writing, the everyday writing, the note-taking and draft-making. Like breathing, it is vital to what we do, but because we do it constantly, it escapes our attention.”
― How to Take Smart Notes
― How to Take Smart Notes
“Great documentation makes new hires productive in days instead of weeks, prevents thousands of calls to customer support, is the difference between crippling downtime and rock solid stability, and inspires true, fervent love of development platforms.”
― Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation
― Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation

Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Simme’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Simme’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Simme
Lists liked by Simme