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emailuser42 | March 21, 2009 05:03 AM | in Technology & Internet

How important is it to be completely literate in technical reading and writing to become a great computer programmer/designer?

Should employers only hire programmers who can demonstrate that they can read and follow a technical manual first? If they can't demonstrate that, are they inviting the workplace to become an unnecessary learning lab and experiment, where unnecessary work time is wasted reinventing the wheel when a manual could have saved time and made the product superior? Comments? Why? or why not?

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BEST ANSWER chosen by asker | modctek | March 21, 2009 05:38 AM

Mastery of technical documentation is what separates a good programmer from a legendary programmer. If someone cannot reasonably explain how they accomplished something, no matter how ingenious or amazing, it loses a great deal of value, especially to folks who aren't willing to take that person's ingenuity on faith.

Where this differs from magic is that a magician relies upon secrecy for profit, whereas the programmer relies upon his creation's ability to be understood and replicated by others.

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Thanks for both excellent answers!

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pvera | March 22, 2009 12:13 AM

I won't hire anyone that doesn't have solid technical communications skills. We run a very small shop, and all of our programmers, myself included, are expected to interact with the customers directly. We can't afford a programmer that needs an intermediary just because he/she can't write tech English or doesn't understand written technical requirements.

It is a life or death skill as far as we care. You could be a rocket scientist as far as programming goes, but without these communications skills you are worthless to us.

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