Well … the LinkedIn spamming of my address book would only happen if I agree to submit my address book for said-spamming. I do not.

As for the tech writing, it would mostly be intercorporate, sort of how-to guides for running a specific application with or against another, for specific projects, pretty cut-n-dried, tried-n-true methods of running a particular workstation. The future of tech writing — largely pictorial, but with a lot of tech-notes for clarity — is to get at least the majority of workers in a global corporation on more or less the same page, a very money+ goal.

For the buying customer, they will just have to get along with having a picture-guide to get the latest 26-speed Public Sprout w/training wheels put together under the tree for Christmas.

Good to see you’re still around.

I last worked as a tech writer, freelance, in the late ’90s, and back then it seemed like the profession was in steep decline. Few companies any more were willing to spend money on product documentation, my specialty. When was the last time you purchased a product with a manual? There are other kinds of writing under the umbrella “tech writing”, like inhouse process and procedure documentation, investigative reports, and stuff like that, but I suspect those specialties are under pressure too from machine learning and quasi-AI. An early casualty was documentation for software developers, which is now pretty much created by other software that scans the source code and fills a template with things like arguments to software functions. The result usually sucks big time, but look at all the money they save!

The other downer is the uberification of almost any kind of work performed on a computer. Sites like UpWork and FlexJobs create a race to the bottom, by forcing you to compete with people who live in places with very low costs of living, who are thrilled to work for a couple of bucks an hour. The requirement for proficiency in the language tightens the standards a bit for tech writing, but English-speakers are a dime a dozen globally, especially in places like India, where English is, if you’ll forgive me, the “lingua franca” that glues together all the groups that make up a polyglot society. As it is, most of the product documentation I see these days reads like it was written by somebody for whom English is a second language. And companies are willing to settle for that.

Having officially retired this year, I sometimes think about supplementing my income by going back to work, and I always think first of something involving writing. But then all the above considerations rain a monsoon on that notion, and I turn to more “practical” ideas like IT or tech support. It ain’t easy looking for work as an grey-haired techie, and you have my sympathy, Dan.

Let me know what I can do to help.

Good luck on your new “adventure”. My life has taken a similar turn.

Cheers to you and the future.

The request I had made was toward our more ancient members regarding my voluntary work on the site itself (c. Space.com through 2002). Such might include my ability as Moderator to curb minor malfeasance, provide data and philosophical feedback, join in somewhat off-handed votes for site-membership and so forth, as well as my various editorials — all lacking these days as I seek to resume my Employed-American status and work on my writing.

I do not have any records of these to forward and what hoping for the crisp memory of HabitableZone.com.

I would truly enjoy helping to get the U.S. Unemployment numbers to drop one more digit…

I am not a LinkedIn member, and have no wish to become one.