Arjun had tunnel vision

So, the princes had spend several years with their guru, learning all that they could. Now their guru, Dron, felt that the princes were ready. But before he could pronounce them fit, he decided he'd take a test.

So, he located a tree with terribly high branches, and placed a tiny wooden bird on the highest branch. Then, he gathered the princes, pointed to the bird, and said, "I want you to hit the eye of the bird".

[Disclaimer: We shall not discuss the fairness of the test.]

So, the princes all looked at the bird, at one another, and then they picked up their bows and arrows and made themselves ready to take a shot. Yudhishthir, being the eldest, had the first go.

So, there stood Prince Yudhishthir, bow raised, arrow pointed towards the general direction of the bird, ready to shoot when Dron asked, "What do you see my boy".
The prince answered, "I see you, Gurudev, and my brothers, and the tree, and the bird."
The guru said, "Step away! You won't be able to hit the target."

So it happened that one by one, the princes came, took aim, were asked the same question, gave the same answer, and were asked to step away...till it was Arjun who stood there, bow raised, arrow aimed, ready to shoot.
"And what do you see my child?" asked Dron.
"I see the bird, Gurudev", answered the prince.
"Do you see the whole bird, child?" asked the teacher.
"No, I see only the eye", said Arjun.
The guru was pleased. "Let go of the arrow, child", he said.
No sooner were the words out of the guru's mouth, the arrow flew from Arjun's bow, hit the eye of the bird, and split the toy into two.

Everyone applauded. Arjun went one to become on of the heroes of this longest epic in the world. And such heroes, like we were told ever since we were kids, are eminently emulate-able.

But, I am not sure whether such tunnel vision is suitable for technical writers. Do we need to focus on one area only, or do we aim at being generalists?

Should we miss the wood for the trees?

Of Choices and Crosses

Background
Dad thinks I have the beginings of peptic ulcer. Dad's a doctor. I said thinks because the diagnosis as on date is long-distance; the physical examination will happen when I go home next weekend. I think Dad's right mainly because (i) he's an excellent doctor (ii) the symptoms - excrutiating pain in the tummy a little after I've finished eating - do point that way.

Disclaimer
This post is not about ulcers and their treatment. This post is about choices.

Body of the post
I am terribly particular about what I eat, when I eat, and how often I eat - so, irregular and improper food habits cannot be a cause for the ulcers. What caused them? I think it's the 4-5 cups of black coffee a day, and the stress associated with the job. Both of them are choices that I made consciously - no one forces me to drink coffee and no one forces me to take on the cares of the entire world on my shoulders. I have made a conscious choice to do more than humanly possible, and to be able to do it, I have resorted to nerve-stimulants such as coffee. It's a choice I made, and am now facing the consequences. But, it's a good thing that this happened. It has made me question whether I am running too fast, too soon.

Conclusion
I am not my brother's keeper. Let each man carry his own cross. I shall do only that much which is do-able in the 16 waking hours, and of that, only 12 hours shall be for work or work-related extra-curricular activities. I shall be selfish. I shall not carry the crosses of other men. I shall stop, and stare. I shall be like William Wordsworth.

Disclaimer 2
The sexist language is entirely due to the source of the quotes that've been paraphrased.

A little learning...

It was the last day at work (for at least the next 6 months) for a pregnant teammate. It was the completion of 2 years at the job for another, and 6 years of marriage for still another. So we decided to pool in and have a small party. I volunteered to go get the goodies that we had listed after arguing for 20 minutes and repeatedly checking the money-purse.
I saw her when I was signing myself out. She was handing over her Visitor Badge to the Security. When I stepped out, she said, "Excuse me".
I turned, "Yeah?" She didn't look all that okay to me so I frowned.
She asked, "Where's the nearest bus top here?"
"Where do you want to go?", I smiled.
"Majestic."
"Oh, then cross the road and walk about 20 steps in the direction against the traffic. The stop's not marked but there may be a few people standing there."
"Thanks", she said. "Are you an employee here?"
"Yes." By this time, we'd almost reached the parking, so I asked, "You, you'd come for an interview?"
"Yes".
I asked something that I shouldn't have. "So, when are you joining us?"
"No, actually, the HR person told me I got only 19 out of 100 in the test so I cannot join."

I could see that she was trying very hard not to cry. Actually, she was trying very hard to smile. I didn't know what to do, so I smiled awkwardly, and turned to walk towards my bike.

She went out of the gates and I saw her crossing the road. Why is it that we have put up an engineering institute at every crossing, got a thousand students on the rolls, and churned them out without any value add? Where have we gone wrong in our education? Why cannot our graduates be employed?

Technical Writing - Job Satisfaction

Someone sent me the following mail (excerpts):

I am new to technical writing. I have recently joined a CMM level 5 company as technical writer. I am also MBA (finance) with 10 yrs experience. I was a content writer before switching over to technical writing recently. But i am not exposed to various things in technical writing here. I have learnt Technical writing formally. I can use RoboHelp, framemaker, snag IT. But in this firm i am using only MS publisher & Snag IT and doing user manuals, online help & documentation. My job satisfaction is low here. so in order to be exposed to other things like release notes, installation guides, SRS, etc. i have to work in a software firm employing these tools to gain experience. If i pursue a online instructional designing course from an institution like vibrant wavelength will it add more value and provide job opportunities.

To which I replied (excerpts):

Not all companies do all kinds of documentation. User manuals and on-line help are the most common types of documentation. Release Notes are, essentially, "notes" and are, therefore, much limited in scope when compared to user manual and on-line help. Installation guides are another kind of user manual - the difference is that this tells someone how to "install" rather than how to "use" and is, therefore, at a slightly higher technical level. Someone who has written user manuals will not find it difficult to write installation guides, provided the domain knowledge is good. SRS are usually not written by technical writers - the project managers of the development team write them. If you are a TW at heart, it does not matter what you write but how you write.

Tools are important, but they are not the end. Tools keep changing. What is important is the ability to take a look at a tool and quickly figure out how to use it. Robohelp, for example, is similar (not exactly same, but similar) to HTML Help Workshop. So, if someone has used one tool, the other tool should not pose any problem. It is important to have "conceptual" understanding of a tool (about what it can do) rather than a "mechanic" understanding (how to do task X).

Instructional design is different from technical writing. It has its own cycle, terminology and methods. It is another branch of technical writing.

Online courses may not really help. Having a "certificate" in one's résumé does not guarantee a better job unless the person can prove, on the spot, that the person really knows the subject.

Analyse yourself - your interests and your strong points, and work towards strenghtening them.

Just my two cents worth.

FrameMaker - Cross References

Problem: My FrameMaker book has several files with cross-references across the files. When I update the book, I get list of entries saying "unresolved cross referece ....blah blah" in my book error log. When I click the links in the error log, they lead me inside the source file to nowhere. The unresolved links are seemingly empty! When I do a "Find" for unresolved cross references, I get a null result. So, where are the broken links?

Hmm (that's me thinking).

Action: I check ALL the cross references in all the files. They are correct. I update the book. I get the same error list in the book log.

Hmm (that's me filling up the nescafe-powder-containing-coffee-cup with hot water)

Thoughts: We imported the text from Word. The Word files were in rich text format.

Action: I do a "Find" again, but this time I look for ANY cross reference. After a couple of "Nexts", the box to the right of the "Find" field shows an entry: "xyz.htm". What? I dont have no html files in my document. So, I go to the location. The cursor leads to a place that doesn't seem to haev anything. I press Delete a couple of times (okay, I press Delete till such time as the space between two words disappeared, and I re-entered the space). I repeat the Find process and do the Delete stuff for all such seemingly empty references that show an htm reference. I save the files, update the book. It works.

Lesson learnt: I hate Word. It messes up life even if life does not have a numbered list or numbered section-broken pages.