Pencil (by openclipart.org - public domain)
After writing several papers for various conferences, I had the occasion to write an article for a magazine (I’ll post more details as soon the issue is out). I mainly did it to collect some experience with that kind of work. Fortunately the topic was about things I’m savvy about, so I just needed to collect the details and write it down. I needed several evenings anyway, as it required to check out current versions of some software and to cope with some glitches in it.
I’m not 100% content, but it’s now a good compromise of what was desired by the client and what I would have written if I was solely responsible for the content. What I’ve heard so far, the client is content as well. Great.
All in all an excellent occasion, and I learned a lot. If you are in the situation to write an article, don’t deny it just because you are too busy or lazy right now. Writing does not only improve your writing skills, but also is a nice training to nail down things effectively. Being an information worker at some software company, it is essential to let others precisely know what I’m intending. Otherwise I either was not able to achieve my goals, or at least it would cost me (and my colleagues) much more time.
