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RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
Subject:RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age? From:Traci Pearson <pearsontechcomm -at- comcast -dot- net> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:48:51 -0600
I became a tech writer because of Haynes manuals.
I still have the first one my dad gave me,
falling apart and stained with oily fingerprints
(both his and mine). I still use them to this day!
At 01:16 PM 8/20/2009, you wrote:
>I just ran across this article about John Haynes, the publisher of the
>Haynes car repair manuals. The article had this to say about why people
>don't fix stuff anymore:
>
>"...Haynes does not produce manuals for all the menagerie of modern
>gadgets that now surround us.
>
>Neither have device manufacturers chosen to fill the void and produce a
>range of simple "how-to"s for taking apart everyday gadgets.
>
>The reasons for this are perhaps two-fold.
>
>The first is that society has become less curious in how machines work -
>they are no longer a novelty.
>
>We are surrounded by complicated machines and if we had to understand
>how each worked and how each could be repaired it would take up much of
>our leisure time.
>
>Secondly, the economic reward for looking after things is growing
>smaller.
>
>Increasingly the manufacturers of machines do not design them to be
>repaired, and so it is often cheaper and easier to throw the mobile
>phone, fridge or toaster away rather than repair it."
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8210144.stm
When something can be read without great effort,
great effort went into its writing.
~ Enrique Jardiel Poncela
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
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