To me, life is about questions, and getting them answered quickly and elegantly.

Your software helps people get answers, and I applaud your efforts to encourage businesses and individuals around the world adopt this approach.

Thanks a million.

Thanks for the comment. Let me answer your question ;).

How would someone learn to program Linux? By asking questions.

How would someone learn to design a car part? By asking questions.

How would you learn how to develop a complicated formula which required precise steps at preset intervals? By asking questions.

In each of the examples you give people still have to ask questions. They just ask them in email lists, forums, and directly to other people specifically because the documentation doesn’t answer their question. The question still needs to be answered. It’s just the documentation in most cases isn’t doing its job so people have to turn elsewhere.

I am not advocating against documentation. I am just suggesting a simplified process for creating more effective documentation. Our customers who follow this approach end up with much more documentation than they ever had before. They create it in less time and with less stress. Most importantly they see their customer satisfaction increase and their support requests drop.

In most people’s minds writing documentation is hard, but answering questions is easy. By reframing the goal from “creating documentation” to “answering questions” you get much more output and much better results.

Q&A is great, I am a big fan. But documentation is very important. Especially in the more regulated fields.

jb