Caring Systems: Documentation as care
summary
Argues documentation is documentation as informational care with three care types—instrumental, emotional, informational—and cites consultancy case studies, developer tools work and usability testing as evidence. Claims 70% of adults need long‑term care, care accounts for ~67% of US economic output, and >100,000 content moderators work in the Philippines. Flags concrete anti‑patterns: roll‑your‑own anti‑pattern, documentation treated as nobody’s job, reliance on relationships, and pushes concrete remedies like participatory design and the axiom care can't be automated.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00WRITE THE DOCS PORTLAND
- 2:26What is care?
- 4:32HUMANS REQUIRE MORE CARE THAN ANY OTHER SPECIES
- 5:1170% OF POPULATION WILL REQUIRE LONG-TERM CARE IN ADULTHOOD
- 7:02WE LIKE TO THINK THAT CARE ISN'T AS IMPORTANT AS OTHER WORK
- 7:44WE LIKE TO MAKE CARE INVISIBLE
- 8:35WE LIKE TO OUTSOURCE CARE
- 9:42WHO IS DOING THE CARE WORK?
- 12:03CASE STUDY: DEVELOPER TOOLS
- 12:50ANTI-PATTERNS AT THE INTERSECTION OF DOCUMENTATION AND CARE
- 13:25ROLL YOUR OWN
- 14:11DOCUMENTATION IS EVERYONE'S JOB/ NO ONE'S JOB
- 15:11FEAR OF STUPID QUESTIONS
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