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Bill's comment enabled me to see beyond my first interpretation of O'Reilly's remark, which was that he thought tech comm was qualitatively trivial. Like, user documents are trivial.
Maybe he was talking about the money-making potential (the business of technical writing).
I wouldn't put it past him, though -- my first intepretation.
From: Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Tech Writers List <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: The "fundamentally trivial business [of] technical writing"
Well, the fundamental business of technical writing is, itself, fairly
trivial. On its face it's a necessary evil for companies to supply
information about their products and services. What's not
fundamentally trivial is how this information impacts target markets,
aids the organization in attaining its business goals, and ultimately
contributes positively to the whole of why and how the company is in
business. The act of writing is just a small piece of our involvement.
We can't look at that one facet as the be-all, end-all of what we do.
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