30-03-2026
3 mins read

Clarity over perfection. Every time.

Why technical writing is less about precision, and more about making the right decisions (even in the age of AI)

I make fast decisions. Not careless ones. Just… clear ones.

I walk into a store, try something on, and within seconds I know: yes or no.
Take it or leave it. Done.

My mom?
She’ll browse, compare, try things on, reconsider, circle back, and go home with nothing.
Sleep on it. Regret it.

I don’t have that gene.

My default setting is: Do I want it? Do I feel it? What’s the worst that can happen?

And if it’s not a clear yes, it’s a no.

Always.

Technical writing is a decision-making job

Sometimes I wonder if I even belong in this field.

Because technical writing or technical documentation is supposed to be about precision.

Accuracy. Clarity. Structure. Details.

Lots of details.

The kind of work where people expect you to take your time.
Research everything. Validate everything. Double-check whether the product behaves exactly as it was intended.
And yes: that’s an important part of the job.
But it’s not the whole story.

Stakeholders are often like this:

“Can you just finish it?”
 “What’s taking so long?”
 “We already prepared everything. Just make it nice.”

(Make it nice. Still one of my favorites.)

What people don’t see:

This job is basically a never-ending stream of decisions.

Tiny ones. Micro ones. Constant ones.

• Do I keep this sentence or rewrite it?
• Do I trust this input or test it again?
• Do I follow the rule or break it on purpose?
• Do I go deeper or move on?

Take the Oxford comma. Yes, there are rules. Yes, people have opinions.

But also: What’s the worst that happens if I don’t use it?

Exactly. Nothing breaks.
The user still understands. No support ticket gets created because of a missing comma.

And yes. I’ve shipped docs where we debated commas longer than features.

AI can handle precision. But it can’t decide what matters

Now we have AI.

Tools that are faster, more consistent, and much more patient.
They happily apply style guides. They follow rules. They don’t argue about commas.

If that were the whole job, we’d already be replaceable.

But we’re not. Because someone still has to decide what actually matters (and do the thinking first).

The mistake: treating every detail as equally important

We often fall into the trap of obsessing over every tiny thing.

• Every comma.
• Every phrasing nuance.
• Every edge case.

If everything is important, nothing is.

We risk becoming exactly what others already (wrongly) think we are:

Pedantic. Slow.

Overly attached to things that don’t move the needle.

Not every detail deserves a debate

The real skill? It’s not just precision. It’s judgment.

Knowing which details matter. Which ones don’t.
And which ones simply aren’t worth your time.

Knowing when to go all in, and when to say: good enough.

And suddenly, being decisive doesn’t feel like a mismatch anymore.

It feels like an advantage.

Because in a world full of “let’s just quickly align on this tiny detail” meetings,
someone has to say:

This matters. This doesn’t.
Let’s move.

So no. I don’t think I’m in the wrong job.

I just think the job is often misunderstood.

Clarity over perfection.
Every time.