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I'd Rather Be Writing Podcast

I'd Rather Be Writing Podcast

By: Tom Johnson
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 A technical writing podcast about the latest trends and practices in the field of technical communication. Technical communication includes topics like technical writing (software help), AI, information architecture, usability, API documentation, information design, web design, illustration, DITA, structured authoring, content strategy, visual communication, and more. If you're a technical writer or interested in technical writing, this is the one of few podcasts in this niche. I also have a blog at https://idratherbewriting.com where the podcasts and other blog topics are published. For an index of all podcasts, see https://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts.2023, I'd Rather Be Writing Education Politics & Government
Episodes
  • How AI is changing the role of technical writers to 'context curators' and 'content directors'

    How AI is changing the role of technical writers to 'context curators' and 'content directors'
    Sep 28 2025
    In this conversational podcast, Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti (Passo.uno) and I talk about the impact of AI on the technical writing profession. We tackle the anxiety, seen and felt almost everywhere, but especially on Reddit, within the community about job security and analyze the evolution of the technical writer's role into a more strategic context curator or content director. We also cover practical applications of AI, such as using agents markdown files to guide language models (with style overrides or API reference contexts), and the role documentation plays in improving AI's outputs (Fabri's phrase 'AI must RTFM').
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    54 mins
  • Recording of AI Book Club discussion of Karen Hao's Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI

    Recording of AI Book Club discussion of Karen Hao's Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
    Sep 22 2025
    This is a recording of the AI Book Club discussion about Karen Hao's Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. The discussion is an informal, casual discussion with about half a dozen people online through Google Meet. You can also read a transcript and other details about the book here.
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    59 mins
  • Recording of AI Book Club discussion about Kai-fu Lee's AI Superpowers

    Recording of AI Book Club discussion about Kai-fu Lee's AI Superpowers
    Aug 19 2025
    This is a recording of our AI Book Club session discussing Kai-Fu Lee's AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. There are 4 people in this book club discussion, and our conversation focuses on the emerging AI duopoly between the US and China. We share our own US-centric blind spots and weigh the political and cultural implications of China potentially winning the AI race. We also talk about Kai-Fu Lee's prediction of mass job displacement and his proposed social investment stipend, questioning both its feasibility and its potential drawbacks. The discussion also explores how our own professional...
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    1 hr and 1 min
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