Tuesday, April 17, 2007

QOTD Serendipity, I suppose: Beyond Plastic.  "When there's no sense of possessiveness or ownership in the artistic process, great things happen." -Paul Budnitz , owner, Kidrobot [Fast Company] Which has some relationship to my previous post. Something like "relinquish control, gain strength." How Zen of me. 9:24:40 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

The topic that wouldn't die Some ideas, quotations, snippets, random thoughts take on a life of their own. It's one of the great unsung truths of art, of any act of creation: once you release your creation into the wild, just let go--you have no control over what happens next, or what others will make of it. So it goes with my statement months ago that talking about technical writing is boring. It's the meme that won't die: Glamorous Careers Turn Out to Be Boring--This American Life Podcast. In the latest This American Life podcast, the theme is how glamorous jobs turn out to be boring. It[base ']s one of the best podcasts I[base ']ve ever heard, and fits right in with some of my previous posts on Is Technical Writing Boring? The podcast has several profiles of people in somewhat desirable careers. The show features an astronaut, an actor, a lottery winnings buyoff dealer, and a cartographer. . .  Preuss had to rough the uncharted frontier so he could do what he really wanted to do: make maps. Isn[base ']t life like that? [I'd Rather Be Writing] Yes, life's like that. For instance: I quit ocean racing when it became more work than play, when it was no longer fun. And after I realized that, in some cases, I was going off on a race only so that, when it was over, I could say that I had done it. And that's when it was time to stop. But looking back, I wouldn't give up any of those experiences: it was worth all the misery and loneliness to be able to look back on a great life in sailing. Been there, done that, moved on. Now, technical writing isn't quite like that for me. I enjoy writing, I enjoy learning new stuff, I enjoy many of the challenges. But talking about it is boring. The last time I moaned about this topic here, Tom sent a very nice email (that I never replied to; yes, life's like that, too) about how I had struck a chord for many people. So I can be satisfied with having started a long-lived meme. Make of it what you will, with my blessings. 9:19:03 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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