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All engineers are good writers… of code. But I believe that in order to a become better engineer–you should improve your writing skills. right?
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imho, depends on context: you gotta a programmer cranking out valuable code critical to product completion ... you don't send them to writing class; instead you get someone like me to revise/improve the comments or explanations, and, i would want to do that because i know i'd learn from the experience.
that happened at software companies i worked at, like Adobe, and Wild-Tangent.
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Technical writers have their place, but I have found that the best speakers-to-machines (aka programmers) are also pretty good speakers-to-humans (lecturers, writers, etc.).
We've all heard of the genius coders who can't utter a grammatical sentence, but they are more urban legend than reality. Most of the cases are wannabes who believe that if they are surly enough and their code opaque enough, people will believe that they are geniuses. It doesn't work that way.
Too many decades ago, when I was in University, I was privileged to hear lectures from some of the luminaries in the Physics world. Contrary to what you might expect, their lectures were usually a model of clarity, and the Q&A after the lectures showed that they really knew what they were talking about.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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hi, daniel,
i think you misinterpret my comments.
i intended to make no generalization about programmers ability to communicate, or being unable to write effectively ! i described a specific scenario with deadline pressure, and a programmer being focused on mission-critical code ... about the possible value in off-loading required documentation tasks in that context.Daniel Pfeffer wrote: genius coders who can't utter a grammatical sentence, but they are more urban legend than reality. Most of the cases are wannabes who believe that if they are surly enough and their code opaque enough, people will believe that they are geniuses.
this sounds like traumatic experiences' ghosts of stereotypes that injured you in some way ... or you observed injured others.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: We've all heard of the genius coders who can't utter a grammatical sentence, but they are more urban legend than reality. Most of the cases are wannabes who believe that if they are surly enough and their code opaque enough, people will believe that they are geniuses. It doesn't work that way.
wow: that's bizarre, and i have never seen things in that kind of light except in movies and tv.
you have turned my simple, specific, words about what i have seen and experienced into ventilation.
 
ps:
i was a board certified therapist before becoming a card-carrying geek at age 35. i was a {paid) technical editor for Addison-Wesley on two of the major books on .NET/C# 20 years ago; 25 years ago, i was the major author of an Addison-Wesley technical book.
now, near age 80, i'm not impressed by such little slices from my 15 minutes of fame !
cheers, bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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My apologies for misunderstanding the context of your words.
As for the rest, all I can say is that your experiences differ from mine.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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With this project, we can now update operating systems as old as Windows 95 all the way through Windows XP RTM like we used to back in the day. We heard you liked Windows Update
Especially the people still running Windows 95 and XP
Part 1 of n today
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Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes he may have found fragments of alien technology from a meteor that landed in the waters off of Papua, New Guinea in 2014. And I believe fragments of crazy have been found at Harvard
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Isn't this the same dild who said Oumuamua was an alien spacecraft?
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Yup. Seems we have a special case there. 
TTFN - Kent
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Off Papua New Guinea? That isn't alien tech, it is proof of Amelia's crash.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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But what caused her to crash?
I'm not saying it was aliens...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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The Surgeon General warns that faculty teas are dangerous to your mental health.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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This is the best-kept secret of the software engineering profession: engineers hate code. Especially code written by other people. Good thing we don't have to deal with it then
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Dan Cowell wrote: Especially code written by some other people.
FTFH
There is code by other people that is like being thrown to hell
and there is code by other people that is well structured, correct, simple, effective...
the latest might even be a pleasure to work with.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I agree. I've been writing code for 37 years, but the code written by a young developer I work with now has taught me a lot about well-structured, easy-to-read code. But then I'm mostly a self-taught, cowboy coder.
There are no solutions, only trade-offs. - Thomas Sowell
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
- Calvin (Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes)
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Sartre: Hell is other people's code.
A fairly amusing and insightful article.
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upvoted for extending Sartre's words
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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i have often seen programmers assigned to work with another framework, language, or assigned to fix legacy code:
walk around screaming how the code is worthless ... long before they touch their keyboards, and get to work.
for new hires, those histrionics may backfire on them.
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Let’s talk about the process where the experienced welcome the inexperienced under their wing and illuminate the path ahead. "Who's the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?"
Seems I'm on a "Star Wars" theme for today.
No, not, "A New Hope". Dang kids (and Lucas) retroactively changing the title. Harrumph!
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OpenAI is forming a new team led by Ilya Sutskever, its chief scientist and one of the company’s co-founders, to develop ways to steer and control “superintelligent” AI systems. Does it involve teaching them the lyrics to 'Daisy Bell'?
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Maybe they are trying to create a clone of Detective Del Spooner
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Make it work for minimum wage, give it the average household bills to pay, and see what happens...
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Half of tech executives reported heavy drinking in a new survey. 45% reported using painkillers. Does this mean I'm qualified to be an executive?
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