About

I'm Mike Pope. I live in the Seattle area. I've been a technical writer and editor for over 35 years. I'm interested in software, language, music, movies, books, motorcycles, travel, and ... well, lots of stuff.

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Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.

— George Carlin



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Blog Statistics

Dates
First entry - 6/27/2003
Most recent entry - 7/10/2025

Totals
Posts - 2664
Comments - 2684
Hits - 2,754,629

Averages
Entries/day - 0.33
Comments/entry - 1.01
Hits/day - 342

Updated every 30 minutes. Last: 12:28 AM Pacific


  09:37 AM

I know how this happens, I do. A tech writer is given a task to "document the product," and it turns out there isn't much to say. But telling the bosses that nope, it's ok, we don't actually need to say anything about this might be perceived as, dunno, not being cooperative. Maybe even suggesting that the writer's job isn't that important.

Anyway, today we have a couple of examples of what might result if the writer (and common sense) does not prevail. First up, we have these, um, helpful instructions that came with a compass that I own:

There must be a universe in which people buy compasses who don't already know what N, E, S, and W mean. I don't believe we live in that universe.

But even that is reasonable compared to the following, which Twitter user Alex Warren posted today:

More dubious guidance: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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