"The guy who knows about computers is the last person you want to have creating documentation for people who don't understand computers"
About this Quote
Osborne’s line lands because it flips a comforting assumption: that expertise automatically translates into clarity. In early personal computing, the “computer guy” was often the high priest guarding a temple of jargon, and documentation was treated like an afterthought - a technical appendix for insiders, not a bridge for newcomers. Osborne is warning that the closest person to the machine can be the farthest from the user.
The intent is practical, almost managerial: don’t staff communication with the deepest specialist just because they have the most knowledge. The subtext is sharper. Expertise breeds blind spots. Once you’ve internalized a system, you stop noticing the steps that confuse beginners, and you start narrating from the middle. That’s how documentation becomes a maze of implied context: “just compile,” “set your PATH,” “obvious,” “simply.” It’s not malice; it’s amnesia.
Coming from Osborne - a key figure in the early microcomputer boom - the quote reads like product-world realism. In that era, computing was leaping from hobbyist clubs to offices and homes, and the winners weren’t only the machines with better specs; they were the ones people could actually use. Documentation becomes a cultural battlefield: do you design for belonging or for gatekeeping? Osborne’s punchline is really about empathy as a technical advantage. The best documentation is written by someone fluent enough to be accurate, but distant enough from the inner circle to remember what confusion feels like - and to respect it.
The intent is practical, almost managerial: don’t staff communication with the deepest specialist just because they have the most knowledge. The subtext is sharper. Expertise breeds blind spots. Once you’ve internalized a system, you stop noticing the steps that confuse beginners, and you start narrating from the middle. That’s how documentation becomes a maze of implied context: “just compile,” “set your PATH,” “obvious,” “simply.” It’s not malice; it’s amnesia.
Coming from Osborne - a key figure in the early microcomputer boom - the quote reads like product-world realism. In that era, computing was leaping from hobbyist clubs to offices and homes, and the winners weren’t only the machines with better specs; they were the ones people could actually use. Documentation becomes a cultural battlefield: do you design for belonging or for gatekeeping? Osborne’s punchline is really about empathy as a technical advantage. The best documentation is written by someone fluent enough to be accurate, but distant enough from the inner circle to remember what confusion feels like - and to respect it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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