Documentation as a creative endeavor with Nick Graziade

The Not-Boring Tech Writer

In this episode, I'm talking with Nick Graziade, a technical writer and musician who approaches documentation as a creative endeavor. We explore how his early fascination with Lego instructions and synthesizer manuals shaped his philosophy that technical writing doesn't have to be dry or boring, but can be passionate and innovative work that adapts to different audiences and embraces impermanence.

Nick shares his two-part "villain origin story" that led him to technical writing. The first part involves his childhood fascination with Lego instructions, which taught him that visual documentation could guide complex building without narration. The second part comes from his music school experience with synthesizers, where he discovered that the best manuals—like those from Moog—don't just explain how to do something, but also why. This combination of visual clarity and deeper understanding became his template for approaching technical documentation.

We dive deep into the concept of using different "grammars" for different audiences, drawing from Wittgenstein's language games. Nick emphasizes that effective technical communication requires understanding what assumptions you can make about your readers and adapting your language accordingly. We explore how consistency in style and formatting reduces cognitive load for users, and how deliberately breaking those patterns can create powerful contrast for important information like warnings or alerts.

Throughout our conversation, Nick reflects on his philosophy of embracing impermanence in documentation. Rather than being frustrated by constant updates and revisions, he sees the evolving nature of technical writing as aligned with his Buddhist-influenced worldview. We discuss practical approaches to managing documentation workflows, including his use of quarterly revision cycles, just-in-time updates based on development sprints, and how he determines when something is "done enough" to move on to the next priority.

About Nick Graziade:

Nick is a Senior Technical Writer, instructional designer, knowledge management expert, musician, and philosopher from Upstate New York's Capital District.

When not obsessing over the nuances of a web page's navigation sidebar, you can likely find him playing gigs as a professional bassist or practicing Japanese sword arts.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Moog Music user manuals: https://www.moogmusic.com/downloads/

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