Talks on passo.uno

Episode VI of Phase One: Doc testing, skills files, and the guardians of knowledge

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Sixth episode of the AI & Docs podcast series is up! In this one, Tom, Manny Silva, and I talk about documentation testing (the deterministic kind), skills files and why they matter, the ethical tension of externalizing your expertise, and the evolving role of tech writers as content curators. Or, if you prefer the romantic version, guardians of knowledge.

You can watch / listen to the episode here:

https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/podcast-silva-guardians-of-knowledge

Some of the things I said:

Episode V of Phase One: Tech comm predictions for 2026

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Fifth episode of the AI & Docs podcast series is up! In this one, Tom and I discuss our predictions for tech comm in 2026, the evolution of writers into automation engineers, the risk of the Reverse Centaur dynamic, and the growing value of authentic human connection.

You can watch / listen to the episode here:

https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/predictions-2026-tech-comm-podcast

Some of the things I said:

Episode IV of AI & Docs: AI tools, automation, and an intentionally offline life

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Fourth episode of the AI & Docs podcast series is up! In this one, Tom and I chat with CT Smith about AI workflows, building tools that don’t depend on AI, the fear of skill atrophy, living intentionally offline, and why the line between developer and writer is starting to blur.

Episode III of AI & Docs: Docs theater and the acceleration paradox

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Third episode of the AI & Docs podcast series is up! In this episode, Tom and I talk about documentation theatre, benchmarks for AI, productivity metrics in the AI age, and much more.

Failing Well: A Practical Guide to Growth for Technical Writers

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 08:00:00 +0000

I really enjoyed speaking at Write the Docs Berlin this year. My talk was a bit special, a message in a bottle for writers who are struggling — for anyone who’s struggling in their careers, really. Here are the recording and the slides, as well as some links to the content that inspired the talk. I hope you’ll find it useful.

Episode II of AI & Docs: MCP and the role of tech writers

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Second episode of the AI & Docs podcast series is up! In this episode, Tom and I talk about MCP servers with Anandi Knuppel. As Anandi says, “wherever there are words with regards to a technical product, that’s the technical writer’s domain”. Don’t miss it!

[Podcast] Growing as a technical writer in the AI era

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Kate Mueller’s The Not-Boring Tech Writer is one of my favorite tech writing podcasts. In Growing as a technical writer in the AI era, Kate and I talked about the Seven-action Docs Model and how to grow as a tech writer. Don’t miss it!

First episode of the AI & Docs podcast is out!

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 08:00:00 +0000

It’s official! Tom Johnson and I teamed up to start an AI & Docs podcast! We had this idea brewing for a while and finally got to record the thing.

Webinar: What's Wrong with AI Generated Docs

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Today I discussed how tech writers can use AI at work with Tom Johnson and Scott Abel. It all started from my post What’s wrong with AI-generated docs, though we didn’t just focus on the negatives; in fact, we ended up acknowledging that, while AI has limitations, it’s also the most powerful productivity tool at our disposal. Here are some of the things I said during the webinar, transcribed and edited for clarity.

Beyond Content Types: A Human-first Model for Technical Documentation

Wed, 28 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000

I spoke at the betterCode() ArchDoc 2025 conference a couple of weeks ago about the Seven Action Documentation model. It was a very nice experience and I thank the organizers for inviting me and letting me post the video. Here is the full recording of the presentation (it’s about 40 minutes long):

[Podcast] Your docs are your infrastructure

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0000

I recently was a guest on The Stack Overflow’s Podcast today, talking about docs (of course), the Vale prose linter, job titles, automation, LLMs, and much more. You can listen to the entire episode here or in the SO blog, or read the transcript. Getting docs closer to developers was one of my personal goals this year, and I think these kind of appearances might help. We need to be where developers are.

Webinar: Contributing to Open Source Documentation Projects

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Some months ago I wrote a post about open source docs contributions. My dear colleague Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler) found that to be a good topic for a webinar, so today I hosted Contributing to Open Source Documentation Projects, where I expanded my thoughts on the topic and provided some practical guidance. You can also download the slides here. Enjoy!

Discussing Markdown and structured content with Niklas Begley

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of conversing with Niklas Begley from Doctave. It was a follow-up to The Pros and Cons of Markdown, focused on why Markdown and other lightweight markup languages could benefit from some structure, in the DITA sense, but without going the XML way. Hint: There could be a bit of JSON schemas involved.

Chat with Tom Johnson about AI and tech comms

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

I had a cool chat with Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com) about AI and its impact on technical writing and documentation. Along the way, we also had the chance of discussing open source docs and the challenge of being a first-time contributor.

Once Upon a Time There Were... Docs

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Here are the video and abstract from my talk Once Upon a Time There Were… Docs from Write the Docs Atlantic 2023.

Episode 33 of API the Docs podcast

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 14:04:00 +0000

I’ve enjoyed doing this one a lot!

Thanks Laura Vass and API the Docs! :-)

https://apithedocs.org/podcast/love-letter-technical-writing-interview-fabrizio-ferri-benedetti-passo-uno

Episode 3 of Let's Talk Docs

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 23:00:00 +0000

Episode 3 of the Let’s Talk Docs podcast is out, hosted by Portia Burton and Eric Holscher (founder of Read the Docs and Write the Docs). Enjoy!

How to assist API design as a technical writer

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:00:00 +0000

The programmatic equivalent of UX Writing is API Design. The words that you use to describe your API enable conversations between software and people - it’s just a bit more structured and mechanical. That’s why technical writers are uniquely suited to assist technical teams in doing API design, especially when an API First design approach is being followed.

Open source tools for REST API documentation

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 22:00:00 +0000

A hands-on review of the most recent open source API documentation toolchains, such as ReDoc, Widdershins, and Elements, the newest solutions from Stoplight, among others. Get the slides here.

On personality in technical writing

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 22:00:00 +0000

Had this lovely chat with Chris Ward and Tom Johnson on personality and authorship in technical documentation for the Write the Docs Podcast. Enjoy!