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The Not-Boring Tech WriterSome people hear the phrase "technical writing" and think it must be boring. Author: Kate Mueller
Some people hear the phrase "technical writing" and think it must be boring. We're here to show the full complexity and awesomeness of being a tech writer. This podcast is for anyone who writes technical documentation of any kind, including those who may not feel comfortable calling themselves tech writers. Whether you create product documentation, support documentation, READMEs, or any other technical contentand whether you deal with imposter syndrome, lack formal training, or find yourself somewhere in the gray area between technical communications and general writingthere's a place for you here. Each month, we publish two episodes: an interview with an amazing guest focusing on useful skills or tools that can help you improve your tech writing skills, and a behind-the-scenes solo episode with host Kate Mueller about what shes working on, struggling with, or thinking about in her daily tech writing life. The Not-Boring Tech Writer is generously sponsored by KnowledgeOwl, knowledge base software built for people who care, by people who care. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Connecting permaculture and documentation with Liz Argall
Episode 13
Wednesday, 25 June, 2025
In this episode, I’m talking with Liz Argall, a writer I connected with at Write the Docs Portland 2025. We talk about working on open source projects, developing good qualitative metrics, her work with a permaculture nonprofit in Uganda, and the ways that being interviewed by a technical writer can make hidden expertise shine.Liz and I presented in the same Lightning Talk session at Write the Docs Portland 2025 and subsequently discovered a shared love for spreadsheet tools, qualitative metrics, and permaculture. We discuss her work on Project Aria, a combination of hardware, software, and data collection geared toward solving the problems that augmented reality will need to address. Liz stresses the point of writing for poorly informed and/or sleep-deprived audiences. We also discuss the importance of qualitative metrics and some of Liz’s favorite qualitative metrics that help capture the story of the documentation, including impact and saving engineers’ and SMEs’ time.Liz also tells us about her involvement with Ngombor Community Development Alliance, a non-profit focusing on permaculture development in the West Nile region of Uganda. We also discuss how sometimes just showing up for something–including showing up to work on your docs–has far more impact than we realize.About Liz Argall:Liz Argall creates empowering documentation and processes; where you need it, when you need it.She’s a technical writer, program manager, author, and trainer who delivers humanizing, data informed, accessible, and technically complex projects for a range of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to a community development organization in Uganda.In a past life, she was a professional artist talent scout and she’s still a professional member of SFWA (now called the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). She’s a graduate of Clarion Writers Workshop, has been critiqued by multiple New York Times best selling authors, and has critiqued the stories of multiple award winning authors, which is a long way of saying that she likes to give a good portfolio critique!Resources discussed in this episode:Project AriaFabrizio Ferri Benedetti’s Why I became a Documentation Engineer (and what that even means): The source for the phrase “technical therapist”Write the Docs Portland 2025, Lightning Talk session 1Liz's portfolio siteIntroduction to search term analysis: Liz’s blog post about the Lightning Talk she gave, which includes links and instructions for her spreadsheetAttend to the work: A blog post by Liz where she alks about permaculture and Diataxis in the context of technical writingDiátaxis as a guide to workLucy Mitchell's websiteUbuntu Summit 2024 | Open source software between Africa and the West: The YouTube presentation that inspired Liz to get in touch with VinceNgombor Community Development Alliance: a non-profit focusing on permaculture development in the West Nile region of UgandaNgombor Community Development Alliance's sponsor a tree (or chicken) page—Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:Email: tnbtw@knowledgeowl.comthenotboringtechwriter.comLinkedInBlueskyJoin the discussion by replying on Bluesky Contact Kate Mueller:knowledgewithsass.comLinkedInBlueskyContact Liz Argall:Liz's website: includes her blog, which has several awesome spreadsheet matrices you can copy and use for yourselfLinkedInBlueskyContact KnowledgeOwl:KnowledgeOwl.comLinkedIn—TranscriptKate 0:04 Welcome to The Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills, and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community. Hello, my lovely, not-boring tech writers. This month, we kind of have a little change up. Normally, this would be a solo episode, but in a nod to Write the Docs as well as some personal stuff I have going on, we decided we'd do a bonus interview episode instead of a solo episode, and maybe I'll be really productive before the next solo episode, so you won't know how unproductive I've been in the last month. So with that in mind, welcome to another interview episode. This month's guest is definitely a Write the Docs special. I had never met her before Write the Docs. And lo and behold, we ended up giving a lightning talk in the same lightning talk session, and that led to us kind of connecting socially during the event, which is a very Write the Docs thing, and as a result, she's here on the pod, because I think she's an amazing human being, and she's had a really interesting array of work experience, and we have a shared love for spreadsheets and matrices. So without further ado, I would like to welcome you to the pod, Liz Argall. Liz, welcome to the show. Liz 1:22 Thank you so much for having me. And I should say, as we discussed before, I'm a big permaculture fan as well. And you know, you gotta follow the seasons, and having a little bit of fallow resting the soil is not unproductive. It's listening to your body and building capacity for other kinds of productivity.Kate 1:40 So Liz, can you tell me a bit about your tech writer villain origin story? How did you end up getting into this field in the first place? Liz 1:50 When I was seven years old, there were some contractors working on our house, an extension on our house, and I was fascinated with them. And my dad noticed that I was fascinated, and he said, “You should go interview them and write about it,” because that's the sort of dad I had. In my little notebook I i...
