[geeks] documenting the environment

[Dan Duncan]

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:30 PM, hike <mh1272 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I do not document anything except for personal use.
>
> No company that I have worked for has paid me for documentation and used it
> properly.  If they ask for documentation, it always ends up being a "ding"
> at performance review time.  Errors can always be found and if the manager
> wants (even the upside-down dot over the "i" or the backwards crossed "t"),
> she will list that as a negative.  Like the United Way and ISO9000,
> documentation is a trap used by manager to make you compliance and
> submissive and screw you over.

I'm sorry your experience has been so negative, but it doesn't mirror
mine.  I try to document everything I create or fix.
It's not for recognition (although it doesn't hurt):  I don't want to
have to wake anyone else up in the middle of the night (and assume
they don't either) and I don't want to be the sole holder of any
knowledge because I don't want to be paged in the middle of the night
when they're losing 99.44 furlongs per fortnight of revenue and I'm
not on call.  My sleep is worth writing some documentation and making
sure it gets published to the group.


-- 
Dan Duncan