I Write for a Living
It just occurred to me the other day, that there are people would like to write for a living.
And I do.
You will never read my professional writing, but people who have, have complimented me on it.
I have to be readable to those who can read it.
I have to be concise and logical (like Charles Krauthammer), and clever (like Ann Coulter).
And I have to write in different languages and get different entities to work together because of my writing. It can't be divisive.
Now the analogy starts to fall apart.
I write programs that govern robots, presses and other machines.
I just finished writing a robot program to take parts out of an injection molding machine and place them in a trimming fixture. I also wired and programmed the trimming fixture. They only crashed into each other once (eggs, omelets).
My boss complimented me on the wiring, which has a design asthetic itself. Functional, pleasing to the eye, and easily understood.
I then went back to work on another device that will test washing machine consoles after they are built. These are not your mother's washing machines. There will come a day when you will re-boot your washing machine.
I wrote the overall controlling program for this device, but the device was designed by my co-worker, Dave, and he did a fine job. There are other writers involved. I had already written the vision system program that checks the lights and console color.
For a few hours, Dave was writing his robot program (it tests the buttons) and I was writing the data acquisition routine (to see how hard the buttons are to press!) and the IT guy was wriiting his stuff to get the data, tell us he got it, and allow the robot to continue. Thee guys, three different minds working towards one goal. That calls for some good communication skills, patience and cleverness. At 6PM we decided we'd run out of all three and would try again Monday.