Should documentation writers get paid more than developers?

[Kent Sharkey]

Tech Republic[^]:

Given the importance of documentation to making software usable, should documentarians earn a bigger paycheck than developers?

And certainly blurb writers!

[Marc Clifton]

Documentation doesn't make software usable. Most of the documentation I write is "workaround this", "workaround that." :laugh: OK, I suppose that does make it more usable. :rolleyes: But if I had my druthers, yes, they should get paid more. Then I could write about people's crappy software rather than debug it. Sorry, I'm in a "mood" today. I haven't seen the sun in weeks, except sporadically, the "creek" by my house is a raging river that could solve per minute the world's water shortage, and I'm generally frustrated with work.

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[Greg Utas]

Not in my opinion. If someone is good at both, where will their marginal revenue product be greater? But hey, people with these kinds of opinions should be allowed to try them out--with their own money, or that of someone they can manage to convince. If all spending was done that way, it would be a vast improvement.

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[Joe Woodbury]

The program crashed, but the documentation was superb.

[Kent Sharkey]

I’d say that was Windows, but… :sigh:

TTFN - Kent

[enhzflep]

"but..." You'd be telling porkie pies. I get receipts some days at the checkouts that have more useful info written on em by their producers.

[Tasadit]

Hey, it warned you about the crash. What more do you want?