Until recently, the most important goal and objective of formal education has been to enrich individuals with powerful knowledge bases before they enter into a professional field. Students would study academic disciplines such as accounting, finance, business, education, economics, science, mathematics, computer science, and then can take this knowledge base with them into their new jobs. However, this trend is changing. The same hold true for Technical Writing and Software Documentation.

The days of “possessing” a knowledge base are essentially over. Why? It is because the scope of knowledge that one must have is increasing to the point of no return. Who can possibly master five programming languages? Who can possibly master five foreign languages? Who can possibly master five major technologies that require certification? Well, as a long-time member of the Information Technology field, I say “practically nobody”. It is simply too much.

So, what can be done?

The answer lies in our ability to DISCOVER AND FIND information. There is a book that was written a few years ago called Google Hacks. I have the electronic version of this fine book on my work and home laptop computers. Because I cannot possibly remember everything I need to know for my writing career, I trust in my ability to SEARCH and FIND information that I need. So, as documentation is composed, my ability to locate, scrutinize, document, and understand information becomes more important that actually possessing this information, which was the model of the past.

So, in summary, the game has changed – not only for Technical Writing and Software Documentation, but also all professional areas. Today, we need to be able to work well with search technologies available through companies like Google (Google Search) and Microsoft (Bing) and even Yahoo (Yahoo Search). If we know that we have the skills to really search and find, then we can place more efforts on working than trying to remember all these random facts just because we might have to remember them one day. Great search skills are important not only for right now, but they will become increasingly important as we move into the future and the web grows in both content and sophistication.

Wishing you a nice weekend

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