Kate Mueller: [00:00:04] Welcome to The Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills, and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community. Hello, lovely not-boring tech writers. I'm Kate Mueller, and this is one of our solo episodes, where I share things I'm thinking about or working on. I'm recording this episode in mid-November, right as the US government shutdown is ending, and we just got our first sticking snow flurries in my area of Maine this week, so it's feeling suddenly very wintry.

[00:00:44] First, my progress update. Since my last episode, I improved my total count by 34 edited articles, bumping my grand total from 692 to 726. I also re-edited some already edited articles because it turns out I missed some stuff in them. I have officially finished my original punchdown list, but I'm still checking things to surface articles that either weren't properly tagged as needing updates or discovering that I fixed 90% of the references in an article, but not the other 10%. Thankfully, there aren't a ton of those, but it's a good reminder to always spot check your own work, and I've had a couple moments of discovering embarrassing oversights in some of the pages I thought were done. But based on the checks I've run so far, I believe I have about 30 articles left to review, and it looks like most of those at this point are things that just didn't get tagged the first time around. But given how this project has gone, I'm guessing that I will somehow find at least twice that number before it's all said and done. I am really hoping that in my next solo episode, I get to tell you I finished this particular project, particularly because it's looking like we'll have some other noticeable UI changes coming up fairly soon, so please cross your fingers and toes for me that I finish this round of updates before that next one launches.

[00:02:11] And while I do really want to reflect on Kate Pond's interview because it was a good one, I'm going to bump that to the next episode. And in this episode, I'd like to do something just a little bit different. Since this is my final solo episode of the year, and since this is also the end of my first year hosting this lovely podcast, I thought maybe a meta reflection on how the year has gone would be appropriate. So thinking back to my very first episode, I said something like, “It's my first time hosting a podcast and, as we all know, new genres can be hard at first, but I hope you'll stick around and join me on this journey.” When I wrote those words over a year ago, the overall format was really just a loose idea, and I was half convinced that I'd flop within the first five episodes, never to be heard from again.

Kate Mueller: [00:03:06] So I am as surprised as anyone that it's been an entire year, and we're already well into recording and planning for next year—the most pleasant of surprises ever. This was a genre I wasn't entirely sure I could figure out, but somehow, maybe luck, I don't know, we ended up with a great format right out of the gate, and that's been really sustainable. And honestly, it's been a lot of fun. I really enjoy alternating the interviews with the solo episodes, since it gives me more time to reflect on the interviews—even though sometimes the solo episodes, I feel like up until the very last moment, I have no idea what I'm going to talk to you about. And looking at our listening analytics, it seems like a lot of you seem to like the mixed format as well, so, thank you. Podcasting is funny. It's a bit like documentation in that you spend a lot of effort putting the thing together, and then you send it out into the world. And although there might be a few very enthusiastic souls who send feedback or leave reviews, mostly you're trusting your gut instinct and maybe some general analytics numbers, and you don't necessarily have a lot of insight into what's working or not working. I've learned a lot in this first year of recording, both about tech writers in general and a bit about being a podcast host, too.

Kate Mueller: [00:04:27] So here, in no particular order, is a list of seven things I've learned about tech writers by doing this podcast. Number one: tech writers are really, really, really not-boring humans. We have excellent senses of humor and some really interesting hobbies. We often like to build things, learn things, or break things, and we're a remarkably diverse group of people with wildly different personal, professional, and educational experiences.

[00:04:59] Number two: we like to learn stuff and we're more or less always learning. Pretty much every single guest I interviewed this year shared stories about learning new tools or languages or tech stacks, either just for fun or because the job required it. I like to think of this as the “always be learning” principle of tech writing. If you're not learning something, you're probably stagnating as a tech writer. So go try a new tool or plugin, work with a new language, sit in on a design or marketing webinar, or try your hand at some app microcopy.

[00:05:33] Number three: we're always adapting. Different guests called this by different names: adaptability, flexibility, or shapeshifting, for example. But the basic idea is the same: different roles and companies expect different things from us, and we often have to adapt or adjust to fit what's needed. With the advent of generative AI and large language models, my hope is that this adaptability is what keeps us all employed.

[00:06:02] Number four: we know a lot of random stuff. Like all kinds of things about all kinds of things and much of that isn't restricted to technical domains. Guests this year talked about coding projects, building tools, developing documentation models, encouraging collaboration with developers, but also philosophy and dialectics, park ranger life, and startup founder life, making music, raising awareness about accessibility, neuroscience, permaculture, teaching yoga, and a whole lot more.

[00:06:37] Number five: we're generous with our knowledge. In fact, if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that it seems like all it takes is for someone to express an interest in what we do and actually want to listen, and then our passion and enthusiasm just carry us along.

[00:06:54] Number six: very few of us came into this profession in a linear or “traditional” way. While there are some precious few who've actually gone to school for technical communications, a lot of us were something else first and just sort of fell into technical writing and documentation by accident. And somewhere in there, we either really liked it or we discovered we were good at it and we kept going. So if you're new to the field and you're worried that your experiences might be insufficient, or you're, like me, really hesitant to use the phrase “tech writer” even though you've probably been creating documentation for years, try asking another tech writer how they got started. The answer might really surprise and reassure you.

[00:07:39] And last but not least, number seven: whether we use the words or not, care and empathy underlie a lot of what we do. We put care or craft into the work that we produce, and we think about how that work will be used by others. We don't seem to mind flailing around in confusion and uncertainty for a while, but we're motivated to do our work because we want to help save other people from that same experience. As the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes.
[00:08:09] I have a very specific list of writers to thank for these insights: every guest I've talked to this year. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to Lorna, Janine, Kenzie, Marcia, Sue, Nick, Liz, Manny, Ryan, Sarah, Fabrizio, Dennis, and Kate Pond. Y'all brought your whole selves to our conversations. I know for many of you, being recorded talking is not your idea of fun and I appreciate the trust you placed in me to guide you through that conversation and the trust you placed in our team to edit your thoughts in a way that felt authentic and true. I hope we've lived up to that. You all brought enthusiasm, expertise, insight, and humor to our conversations. And you stuck with me, even when I couldn't figure out how to word the question I wanted to ask, and in some cases had to try it a second or even a third time, because words are hard. You gave me and our listeners things to laugh about and think about.

Kate Mueller: [00:09:15] Your generosity in sharing your knowledge, and especially for those of you in the early part of the year, your patience as we figured out what the process would look like, have been incredible. I can't imagine a better first year of guests than all of you. You made my side of this job so easy and so incredibly fun, and you've set the bar really high for all future guests. Just sayin’. But even better, I feel like each of you has crossed over from being a random person I interviewed into being a friend, and for that I am thankful beyond words.

[00:09:55] Along the way, I've also learned some new things about myself, which mostly boil down to these four things. First, I much prefer having conversations to interviewing people. If you've been a guest on the show, you'll know what that means. Though we do edit it to sound like a proper interview, the truth is that I am just over here having awesome conversations with talented people, and then other talented people edit that to make it sound like an interview.

[00:10:27] Which leads me perfectly into my second learning. If you surround yourself with smart and talented people and let them be themselves and work how they work, amazing things will follow. I have put a ton of trust and faith in everyone else involved in this podcast at every stage of the way, and it's been an excellent reminder of just how awesome so many humans are and what stellar work and ideas so many of us have.

Kate Mueller: [00:10:57] My third learning, which is always a good one to be reminded of, is: you don't have to solve everything. I've been a team of one a lot, and even when I haven't, I often have tended to shoulder an outsized amount of responsibility. Working on this podcast, I made a really conscious decision to not feel that I personally needed to do or solve everything myself. So when I felt like something in the process was off, instead of fixing it myself or immediately going to solve, I would instead just tell our team about it and ask what we could do to change it. When I wasn't sure what was viable or standard or even possible in the podcasting industry, I asked our post-production team for their expertise and then I actually listened to what they said and I followed their guidance—I hope, maybe. Instead of telling my guests what I wanted them to talk about and how all of the conversation would be structured, we would have a preliminary conversation about what they wanted to talk about and then I tried to build an interview around that. And I believe many of the solutions and the episodes themselves ended up being hugely better as a result of me feeling like it wasn't all on me to do.

[00:12:22] And my fourth and final learning, which is perhaps the most awkward for me to record, is that sometimes being your authentic self and taking on all the vulnerability that comes with that is the best way to invite people in. The solo episodes for me were like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute—just hoping that I would land somewhere safe and not die an excruciatingly painful death. They were terrifying, sometimes almost paralyzing. And the first few felt like just this tremendous personal risk. I was really convinced that we would see numbers on the interviews stay relatively high, but the numbers on the solo episodes be significantly lower. And it has been amazing to me that a) that's not true, but b) some of you have reached out and said that the solo episodes are actually your favorite episodes. And I know that that's not true for everyone. I'm sure some of you really wish I would just shut the heck up, but it has made me feel a lot more confident to keep doing the show, knowing that you're not just sort of tolerating my presence, but actually looking forward to it.

[00:13:46] This episode is sponsored by KnowledgeOwl, your team's next knowledge base solution. You don't have to be a technical wizard to use KnowledgeOwl. Our intuitive, robust features empower teammates of all feathers to spend more time on content and less time on administration. Learn more and sign up for a free 30-day trial at knowledgeowl.com.

Kate Mueller: [00:14:07] In episode 23, I talked about picking up trash from the side of the main road in my area. And this week, right before I recorded this, in fact, something astonishing happened. I was driving on that road to go into town to run some errands, and a few miles up the road, I saw a truck pulled off on the side of the road. And directly across the road from the truck there was a man walking in the ditch, and when I got close, I realized he was carrying a large bag and a pair of grabbers because he was out picking up trash. I've lived here for five and a half years, and other than the once a year Earth Day cleanup, I have never seen anyone else out picking up trash on this road. I don't know if this guy's always done it, and I just never saw him, or if he saw me doing it and felt inspired. I had a car right behind me, so I didn't stop to ask, but it seems that I'm now part of a little community of trash pickers on our road, a community I didn't really know existed. In many ways, hosting this podcast has been a similar experience for me. I mean, sure, I knew tech writers existed, but they always felt like people way over there with far more training and experience than I had. I felt like I was on the fringe of the community at best.

Kate Mueller: [00:15:40] And instead, it turns out that the community has been right here all along. So many tech writers have similarly unusual origin stories to mine. Nearly all of us feel like we can always learn more or do better. And as a general whole, we're welcoming and supportive. What this podcast offers is something beyond my trash picking experience, because my fellow trash picker and I don't know each other. We haven't had a conversation. I'm not sure he knows I exist and I only just learned that he exists. We're not swapping stories or techniques or sharing information. We're really missing that true sense of community. Right now, we're just two people with a similar idea engaging in similar actions. And before I started doing this podcast, I would say that's kind of how I felt about tech writing. I was, like a lot of other people, doing similar things, engaging in similar actions, thinking about similar things, but I didn't necessarily feel that I was truly part of a community. And to be fair, most of you I have never met. I haven't had a conversation with you. We're not swapping stories or techniques. You're just listening to me talk a bunch or interview other people. So to some extent, I'm still not necessarily actively part of the community. But I hope that you've found a bit of true community listening to this podcast, that you've learned things or comments that guests or I have made have resonated with you, or you've felt seen, or you just feel more connected to this large, wildly diverse community because you're recognizing that there are other people in it who are like you.

Kate Mueller: [00:17:24] My goals for this show remain the same as they did 24 episodes ago: to learn and improve my tech writing skills, to foster more space for tech writers and tech writing conversations, and maybe in some small way, to help democratize the definition of tech writing so that even more people feel welcome in this community. Community building is slow work, involving many hands and lots of unseen labor, so I'd like to close this episode with a few appreciations for our little not-boring community.

[00:18:01] First, a big thank you to KnowledgeOwl who so graciously continues to sponsor this podcast. I imagine that most companies who sponsor podcasts want to turn them into sales juggernauts, and I've been really thankful that that's not been a thing I had to do. Instead, we have shared a vision of contributing to the tech writing community and trying to hold space for that community. And I feel really lucky to have that alignment with our sponsor.

[00:18:33] Also, a huge thank you to Chad Timblin, our very not-boring podcast Head of Operations. You haven't heard him on here... yet? I don't know, maybe I'll bring him on at some point if y'all want to talk to Chad. But Chad is really the one who keeps everything running behind the scenes. He handles nearly everything with our guests besides the actual interviews themselves. He does many of our social media posts, all of our swag designs, as well as some episode review and show notes. And most challenging of all, he deals with my ever unpredictable, “Hey, what do you think about X?” questions. There would be no podcast without you, Chad. Thank you for all of the work you do and the delightful energy you bring every day.

[00:19:19] Also on the KnowledgeOwl side, thanks to Veronica Calvage, who handles the rest of our social media and helps with some of our podcast marketing and vision brainstorming. You offer a vastly different perspective than Chad and I, and your insights, enthusiasm and support are a huge help.

[00:19:37] I'd also like to give a tip of the hat to the entire Astronomic Audio team who handles our audio editing. Alex, you have been just the most amazing guide through the adventures of starting a podcast and you answered all of my questions. You got me to feel less intimidated and scared. And I'm pretty sure to the extent we've followed your advice, you helped set us up for success from the beginning. Been, you do more than probably any other human to make sure we actually meet all of our deadlines. So you are the reason that we have managed to put out this many episodes this year. Also, you bring the absolute best cheese puns, which I have a deep appreciation for. And also thank you to Madi for giving us transcripts that are accurate, but also readable as standalone text. I know we have a few listeners who can't listen, and this is a great way for them to be able to still engage with the content.

[00:20:39] And last on the Astronomic team, Dillon. Dillon, I don't have words to thank you for all you do because you make me sound like a real podcaster. You get rid of all my coughing fits, many of my weird verbal tics, and you have handled every single one of those, “Oh my God, that was awful, let me take that again” moments so that no one but the two of us knows that they happened. This show would not sound half as good as it does without your efforts and abilities.

[00:21:14] And last but most important in my list of appreciation: thank you, dear listener. When I started doing this podcast, it felt like a massive leap of faith that anyone ever would want to listen to me talk—whether that was interviewing other people or the terror of doing a solo episode. And yet, here you are. As I hoped in that very first episode, you stuck around and you joined me on this journey. And I am so stoked that we get to continue this for another year. As long as you keep showing up, I'll keep showing up and we'll all get to be hopefully a little bit better, a little bit smarter, and a lot less boring as a result.

Kate Mueller: [00:21:58] Our next and final episode of the year is my gift to you, and I hope you enjoy it. We are all not-boring writers and we'll get through this next year together. As always, if you have ideas for topics or guests, if there's a bit of the tech writing world that your life would be improved by hearing an episode on, or if you'd just like to tell us what you're getting out of the show, please message us on LinkedIn or Bluesky @thenotboringtechwriter or email tnbtw@knowledgeowl.com.

[00:22:35] The Not-Boring Tech Writer is co-produced by our podcast Head of Operations, Chad Timblin, and me. Post-production is handled by the lovely humans at Astronomic Audio, with editing by Dillon, transcription by Madi, and general post-production support by Been and Alex. Our theme song is by Brightside Studio. Our artwork is by Bill Netherlands. You can order The Not-Boring Tech Writer t-shirts, stickers, mugs, and other merch from the “Merch” tab on thenotboringtechwriter.com. You can check out KnowledgeOwl's products at knowledgeowl.com. And if you want to work with me on docs, knowledge management, coaching, or revamping an existing knowledge base, go to knowledgewithsass.com. Until next time, I'm Kate Mueller and you are the not-boring tech writer.