File this one under “bullshit.” By which I mean, this is a complaint.


I’ve come to the realization over the last few years that I’m something of a luddite. I think it started when I was working at Asynchrony those years ago (Asynchrony, which is now “WWT Application Services,” possibly the worst post-takeover name change I’ve ever heard of). I really enjoyed a lot about that job and the team I was attached to, the people I was with, etc., but I did notice that, at times, things became over-complicated. Not the products or the codebase(s), per se, but certain processes, systems, etc., that were used to keep it all afloat. I say this with full appreciation for the difficulty of scale, the needs of organizations, etc., and the knowledge that I have, at best, a cursory understanding of what “DevOps” is.

And aside from an occasional argument about the necessity (or not) of having a phone, iPad, multiple computers, gaming systems, etc., with my middle brother, whom I do love very much but often butt heads with about this kind of thing (that said: he gave me an iPad and it’s frankly been excellent, so far as keeping the weight down on the bike commute to school), but it all really started to hit me working at the bike shop, where all of a sudden, pretty much every damn tutorial was a video. No text option. Often with piss-poor closed captioning.

You see, thing is, I like to read. It’s how I best process information and learn. Well, learn by doing. But you get the idea.

And so now, I’m at this new job, and I’m starting to dip my toes back into the wonderful (i.e., kind of beige) world of “Technical Communications,” and so I revisited a few of the sites and blogs I once frequented to kill time while waiting for those pesky developers to finish developing.

One of the more memorable and useful ones (with a p. great title) was I’d Rather Be Writing. Lots of good stuff there. Intros, fun facts, a bit of personal narrative here and there (turns out we both did some schooling in the garbage great state of Florida*, except I’m a heathen and he’s a Mormon), but he’s started doing…podcasts. Fucking podcasts.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like a good podcast or two. I was p. into those Pod Save Whateverthefuck folks for a while, though stopped because they were a little too middle-way, then I was doing the Chapo Trap House people, but they’re a little… I don’t know, I just sort of lost interest, and of course, everyone should be listening to The History of English Podcast, because it’s perhaps the greatest thing ever (I like it so much I’m even a donor on Patreon), but I don’t like listening to podcasts at work (it feels like cheating, like when I listened to podcasts building bikes/wrenching for the ?now defunct? Fortified bike company). Or if I’m looking for information, and don’t want to do the whole rig-a-ma-role (sp).

And so while I think it’s great that there’s now info on “Getting Started with API Documentation”, info I frankly need to know (since I’ll be doing some API docs once I finish getting through a 10-year backlog of editing, rewriting, reformatting, etc.,), but also info that I’m going to be annoyed to acquire, at least if I want to acquire it here.

So thanks, the Internet. I guess I have to listen to podcasts now. Or not. We’ll see how this whole job thing goes, I suppose.


  • Dear friends from Florida: It’s a fine state. I had a great time there because of you all. That said, I had a great time there because of you all.