☕️ FIELD GUIDE 29: Necessary Complexities

This week, we’re joined by FFOREST dweller, Josh Thomson. By day, Josh is a technical writer. By night, he is an avid-reading, lego-building, new-interest seeking, crafty human being.

Between clocking out and clocking back in the next day our time is only ours. What do you do with it?

This week, it’s about filling your cup.

Name

Josh Thomson

Habitat

Austin, TX

Occupation

Technical writer

Soundtrack

(Spotify)

I was born in St. Charles, MO, and I grew up in Houston, TX. In school, I worked quickly, read heavily, and wrecked grade curves. I was often bored. I attended the University of Texas at Dallas, where I got my degree in electrical engineering. I chose EE because it was one of the main areas of study at this university that had given me a generous scholarship.

If I had gone somewhere else, I would probably have studied something else. I lived in Dallas for 21 years before moving to Austin. My wife at the time wanted to live somewhere less stuffy and more like her home state of California, and Austin made a good compromise that meant I wasn't moving so far away from my family and friends. At present, I am divorced and still living in Austin, where I am happy and I fit in well, culturally.

My hobbies are: reading (fiction, comics, science, essays, and other stuff), board games, Lego building, watching documentaries, cooking, designing logos, and doing small craft projects. My house currently contains: two pinball machines, a modular synthesizer (gathering dust), two cats, my second cousin (who needed to move away from a dead-end town during the pandemic), at least a thousand books, an embarrassing amount of craft supplies, and an even more embarrassing amount of Lego bricks.

I am currently learning more about death positivity and pixel art. My favorite things in the world are stories (in all forms) and games. I believe very strongly in being kind to others and in pursuing an Epicurean life for myself.

Outside of my hobbies, I am a technical writer. I write and edit user manuals and other documents. These documents serve as references for a company's products, describing the features and functions of those products in detail, and explaining how to use those products. I translate from Engineer to English: I take technical jargon and rambling explanations and make it comprehensible to everyone else. Without technical documentation, many products would be useless or nearly so.

You might be able to guess at how to use your new air fryer by playing with its interface, but the company who made that air fryer could not have built it without detailed documentation for the microchips that power its interface and control its internal operations.

Am I passionate about being a technical writer? Yes and no.

I can talk about technical writing in my sleep, but that's not surprising considering I've been a technical writer for nearly 23 years. I think good technical writing is important because communication in general is important. I am aware that I write and edit documents that most people hope they will never have to read. Much like a fire department (though with far less dire consequences), most of the time you don't need documentation, but when you do need it, you really need it, and you need it to be quick and effective.

Technical writers solve problems. We solve our own problems in the tools we use by finding tricks and workarounds, because no authoring software is perfect and many are terrible. We solve problems for the designers and programmers we serve by making the documentation clear and complete, so those designers and programmers don't need to answer customers' questions directly. (One of the moments of professional pride for a technical writer is when a designer tells someone to "RTFM", because they have confidence in the people who WTFM.)

We solve problems for the users by advocating for their needs to the designers, because most designers don't fully understand what their users need to know. Clear communication is a form of kindness; it demonstrates respect and it helps people.

The thought of explaining complex topics in a simpler way is not what gets me out of bed in the morning, but I do care about it and I am good at it.

It might sound glib or grim, and it might be unhealthy, but what does get me out of bed in the morning is the knowledge that if I don’t get up and do my work, my life will fall apart. I’ve got no one taking care of me, and not much of a safety net. I nearly burnt out a few years ago. I was at a tech writing gig where the environment was quiet and unfriendly, and my work went largely unrecognized. It was the only job I’ve ever been in where on my first day I felt like I should not show up for my second day. I wish I had followed my gut on that one.

But... now I have a job where I regard many of my coworkers as friends. I have a manager who is great about showing appreciation and giving recognition. For my own part, I made a decision to bring as much of my self and my personality as possible to work. I let people know I care about them. I share my non-work interests. I make jokes. On the rare days when I go into the office, I wear what I want, because I think the pandemic pretty solidly put the lie to the idea that one's professionalism is accurately reflected in one's professional attire.

Most importantly, my time outside of regular working hours is my own. Work does not drain my cup too much, because I don't allow it to do so. I am aware that I am somewhat lucky in that regard, and that not everyone has the luxury of putting such boundaries between their working life and their home life.

In a world where teachers were better treated and better compensated, I probably would have been a teacher. (As it is, every friend and relative I have who worked in education made deliberate decisions to leave the profession.) I receive joy and take pride from helping people understand things.

I tutored people for free and for money in a variety of subjects, from the time I was in junior high until about a decade after I graduated college.

Being a technical writer feels like an extension of that tutoring to me. The set of knowledge and skills that makes me a good technical writer – that is, being a good written communicator with a background in engineering and a knack for solving problems with software – is definitely necessary, arguably rare, and possibly disappearing.

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Necessary work comes in all shapes and sizes. Josh’s daily work is necessary for products we likely have in our homes. However, the more necessary work seems to be the work we put into ourselves outside of work. That work might not pay the bills but it fills our cups. Pour where its needed.

See you next week!

Skyler