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Documenticide

Life on planet Earth will perish not from greenhouse gases but documents

Umberto Tunesi
Tue, 03/27/2012 - 15:02
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I’ve been baptized; I do believe in religion. But I really can’t stand the fact that the Ten Commandments had to be set in stone. The human brain is capable of effectively remembering some 100 words—and much, much more.

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I don’t object to documents as such. I love books; my home is crowded with them. I much prefer writing and reading to talking, although I’m accused, sometimes, of being a maniacal listener. That is, I’m inclined to listen to anybody’s and everybody’s words, and I tend to remember them, however trivial or insignificant they may seem. Words are like icebergs to me: Too many can sink a Titanic, and hence, they deserve my close attention.

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Comments

Submitted by kiddsport on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 11:29

Documenticide is caused by non-writers

I understand the author's frustration with the copious amounts of documentation flooding organizations these days. The larger the organization, and the longer they exist, the bigger the mountain of documentation that gets generated. The problem lies not with the intent of "saying what you do, doing what you say, and documenting that you did it." The problem is it takes an untrained writer 100 words to say what a skilled author can say in ten.

It usually falls to a technical expert to document a process without the aid of a professional corps to put down the necessary documentation and eliminate the unnessary. Too few entities invest in the up-front labor to make sure their process is accurately and effectively documented initially and, in these days of downsizing and overtasking, don't have time to keep up with the changes and improvements subsequently needed.

Bottom line- do it right the first time and you won't have to fight forever to keep your documentation from smothering you to death. 

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Submitted by dapqam on Tue, 04/03/2012 - 07:36

Documentation is required because of a lack human perfection

Governments and corporations utilize documentation to help create a record of activity since we have lost trust with each other's verbal word.  If everyone was entirely truthful records might be less necessary.  Documention, in the form of instructions, are necessary to codify training.   We do not all have perfect memories.  Unfortunately as time passes fewer and fewer of us have the skills to write clearly and consisely.  This skill must be taught in our schools.   

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