I got my picture in the paper

I know this is a little braggy, but here it goes…

When I was 10 years old, my school had a speech contest. We’d all written essays about Martin Luther King, Jr., in advance of the holiday that celebrates the civil rights leader.

Some of us were chosen to read them aloud in front of the whole school.

Our source material was very similar. We likely pulled our essays from the same few books and encyclopedia articles.

It occurred to me, even at that young age, that I needed to do something different.

While my classmates looked down at their papers, reading their essays verbatim, I spoke mine from memory.

It took a little extra effort, but it was a small change with a big impact.

I earned a trophy and my picture in the local paper.

Your rewards could be far greater if you do the things that others won’t.

You can make small updates to your documentation that greatly improve the developer experience, for example.

As a tiny action you can take today, check that tutorials include a little context at the beginning:

• Why is this project important?
• How might it be used?
• What are we even building?!
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When you understand the end result of a developer’s visit to your documentation, you’ll be able to help them with more than just an explanation of your product.

If you need help finding the perspective, get in touch with the EveryDeveloper team.