The panic is familiar. New technology arrives, threatens to automate away our jobs, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling to figure out what skills will matter in five years. Sound like the current AI conversation in technical writing circles.
Rahel Anne Bailie posted a summary of changes in technologies that technical writers have dealt with over the past few decades. But technical writers have been navigating this exact disruption for centuries.
Think about it. In 500 years, anyone reading the words of technical writers today will wonder what the obsolete vocabulary means and what marvels a document titled “Installing Ubuntu” might hold. Who will remember Ubuntu in 500 years?
Now flip it around. Look at documents from alchemists 500 or 1,000 years ago and think about who wrote them. Some were written by subject matter experts, others by professional writers skilled at applying the tools of their day to record the knowledge of their day.
The pattern repeats: media evolves from stone tablets and chisels to quill pens and parchment, to movable type and printing presses, to desktop publishing and websites. The tools change.
What actually stays constant
Over the centuries, tech writers have been learning the technology they are documenting (alchemy, radar, APIs, what have you) and writing to specific audiences (wizards, technicians, software developers, and so on). Names change, but the guiding principles have changed very little.
What remains important to remember, and communicate, is the value that the scribes and writers bring to the customer experience.
Why the AI panic misses the point
AI represents another tool shift, not a fundamental change in what technical writers do. While the introduction of AI into the field came on a bit like a bull in a China shop, with the initial message along the lines of “Outta my way! AI is here to save the day!” Now that the dust from that storm has settled, we can see that the real question isn’t whether AI will replace technical writers—it’s which technical writers will adapt their skills to work effectively with AI, just as previous generations learned to work with desktop publishing, content management systems, and web technologies.
What this means for your practice
Sometimes, taking an extreme view, such as from a 15th century perspective, can help put modern-day events into a clearer perspective. It reminds me that, we (as a discipline) have been down this path many times over the years. It’s a shock to many of us, but not necessarily to the craft. This is a good time to fall back to our first principles and figure out how to apply them in the current environment, as our career ancestors might have done in centuries past.
The more things change
I asked Claude to imagine how this conversation might have played out in a previous technological shift, and I was presented with this note from an imaginary 15th century wizard.
To My Faithful Scribes
Written in the year of our Lord 1440, in the tower of Aldric the Wise
My devoted servants of the quill,
For nigh on twenty winters have you labored in my service, your fingers stained with ink, your backs bent over parchment, transcribing the sacred formulae and mystical incantations that flow from my profound wisdom. Your dedication has not gone unnoticed, nor unappreciated, though I confess I have been sparing with such acknowledgments.
Yet the crystal sphere has revealed a marvel most extraordinary. In the Germanic lands, a certain Johannes of Gutenberg has devised a contraption of metal letters and mechanical pressing—a “movable type printing press” that can reproduce a hundred copies in the time one scribe completes a single page.
This machine shall produce my treatises without complaint, cramped hands, or smudged diagrams. The economics are undeniable.
Therefore, your services shall no longer be required come the feast of Michaelmas. The press arrives with spring merchants, and by summer’s end, my wisdom shall spread across the known world with unprecedented speed.
Fear not for your futures, dear scribes. Your skills in letters and illumination remain valuable to lords and abbots who lack my foresight regarding this revolutionary technology. I shall provide each of you with a letter of commendation, noting your years of faithful service and your mastery of both common script and the more arcane symbolic notations required for proper spell documentation.
To Brother Marcus, whose steady hand has copied my “Compendium of Weather Magicks” no fewer than eight times: seek employment with the monastery at Cluny, where they yet value traditional manuscript arts.
To Sister Evangeline, whose delicate illuminations have graced my works on herbal remedies: the Duchess of Burgundy has recently expressed interest in commissioning an illustrated psalter.
To young Thomas: despite your regrettable tendency toward ink blots, your quick wit and facility with languages mark you well-suited for translation work. The emerging universities have great need of such skills.
I trust you understand this decision springs not from any dissatisfaction with your labors, but rather from my obligation to embrace innovation that serves the greater dissemination of arcane knowledge. The printing press represents progress, and progress, like time itself, moves ever forward whether we embrace it or resist.
You shall receive full wages through Michaelmas, plus an additional month’s compensation to ease your transition. Clear out your writing desks by the autumnal equinox.
May your quills never run dry, though mine shall soon be replaced by metal type,
Aldric the Wise
Master of the Eastern Tower
Keeper of Ancient Secrets
Soon-to-be Pioneer of Printed Grimoires
Post Scriptum: Brother Marcus, kindly ensure this letter is copied for distribution to all scribes. Ironically, this may be among the final documents requiring your traditional services.
I would imagine that the scribes who thrived after Gutenberg weren’t the ones who insisted on hand-copying everything. They were the ones who learned to work with the new technology—becoming editors, proofreaders, and type designers.
Bringing this back into the present, the situation is similar. Tech writers need to understand this new technology and apply it to the aspects that have remained consistent over the centuries to use it productively: More where it helps, less where it doesn’t.
We’ve done it before; we can do it again.