David Marcus (z"l)

Just something (work related) that I had to write for myself and share with you. Some of it will be of interest only to documentation people. The ending is for everyone.  

Diamonds, Documents and Other Precious Jewels   The creation of a precious jewel, like a Diamond or a Sapphire is a long and complicated matter. You start by heating the raw material, pure Carbon for a Diamond, under high pressure deep in the center of the earth (some sources say) for over three billion years. The result is a Gem, a sparkling jewel to adorn a tender hand and the object of man's adoration since time eternal.  

The creation of good documentation requires a process not dissimilar to that of creating a good gemstone. You have to start with good raw material. This is essential because though we, in the documentation business, are Technical Writers, professionals in our craft, we are not chemists, magicians or alchemists. We cannot change lead to gold, water to wine or make elephants disappear in a flash of thunder. If you give us garbage to process what we will produce is refined garbage, looking good, but still having the same stink.   

I don't ask for three billion years to produce a good document or for Product Managers to spend all their time creating perfect raw material for us. Like everyone else in the division I am a realist in this harsh world and I don't mind working with one eye on a clock counting downwards or to creatively improvise in order to provide what the company needs, real-time, on-time quality documentation.   

Not all diamonds are perfect, some have flaws and discolorations or are commercially too small to sell. Other diamonds are black and serve only as industrial tools. All however are pure diamond, the result of nature's planned efforts, perfect in content, if not in size, shape and form.   In all my years of work, I have never aimed to produce only perfect products. I can accept that for practical reasons not every document I sign out will be a Cullinan diamond; some might be flawed, discolored or otherwise incomplete. What I do need to work successfully is the understanding that documentation is an integral part of a successful sales process and should be considered for, in terms of both monetary and time budgets.  

• If you have promised a client a document set for the morrow, you cannot deliver the raw material to me at 11:30 pm the previous night and still expect to get anything beyond a smelly mess with a bottle of perfume thrown over it.
• If there are 17 documents to produce within eight hours this cannot be done without a trained and experienced team and recruiting last minute outsourcing  is not a viable or efficient solution.

Diamonds are forever and perfect, as the saying goes. Men however are neither, we are on this world for only one hundred and twenty years and then we dissolve to dust. Words however, like diamonds, live forever and will be remembered long after we are gone from this earth. More than anything else, what I would like to leave behind ME, some day, is a legacy of fine vintage scripture and not a heap of rotting garbage.

David
May 11, 2004