Tech Writer Highlight - José Jorge Rodríguez
Jose talks about Tech at Under the Hype
This week in The Tech Writer Highlight, we interview who writes . Jose shares his origin story, his writing process, and some advice for aspiring writers. Enjoy!
First, tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you, what is your day job, what are your professional interests?
I'm a Computer Scientist. I'm very curious, and that curiosity has driven my professional life. I have had the opportunity to work on many different projects. Just to mention some of my occupations: I have been a teacher, researcher, data scientist, and team lead. Right now I'm working as a Senior Software Engineer (at least that's what is written in my contract) in a relatively large company, and also leading a small team.
I graduated from the University of Havana, but now I'm living in Spain, where I got a Master's in Robotics. Currently, I'm also exploring how to create some sources of income around what I love the most: education and science. Although I have been away from academia for a while, I consider myself as a scientist. I don't write papers but live and think with a "science-first" approach.
Now tell us about
. What is it about? What topics do you cover? Who is your intended audience?Under the Hype is the product of some accumulated discomfort. Social media platforms are a succession of hypes. All of a sudden, you need to buy all the Bitcoin you can; next week, they tell you that if you don't use ChatGPT, you'll get replaced by it, and the week after, the world will be destroyed by AI. All of this is mostly noise and lies. It is deliberately misleading and can confuse people that are inexperienced in these topics. Also, it is incredibly annoying for people that go to these platforms with the hope of reading good content and having interesting debates.
Under the Hype tries to be a "safe place" for people looking for good tech-related information and also a place to have good debates. I try to write every week about an interesting topic (at least interesting for me), and most of the time I include my opinion/vision on some aspects of that topic. The newsletter is written for anyone interested in science and engineering (especially Computer Science). I hope to create a community around the newsletter where people can express their opinions and all of us can grow together.
How, when, and why did you begin writing about technical topics on the Internet?
Back in 2020, I was teaching and researching at the University of Havana. I loved to go there and talk to professors and friends about what we were working on. Then the pandemic arrived in Cuba, and I found myself locked inside my house. I started to use Twitter and found an amazing community to talk about AI, Math, Engineering... you name it. I started to write threads every week but without any scheduling or specific goal, I was just having fun. I also started a blog on Hashnode.
Then I had to take care of other issues in my life and stopped writing because it was not a priority at that time. When I came back to Twitter a few months ago, I found a completely different scenario. It can sound a bit dramatic, but I feel the community is broken. My feed only obeys the current hype. That was very annoying to me, and I decided to start Under the Hype. That's pretty much the story. Now you can re-read the answer to the previous question to know how the story ends :-).
What role does technical writing play in your job and life?
First of all, it is a source of happiness. I enjoy writing. When I don't feel that happiness, I don't write. But, as I said, I hope to create some (small) sources of income from educational and scientific content. I think technical writing is a great option. That's why I'm also writing a book, and I have other projects in mind related to tech writing. It is not the center of my life, but it is certainly important.
How is your writing process? How do you organize your writing schedule? How much time does writing take you, on average?
That depends. I write Under the Hype in a more unstructured fashion. I'm constantly catching ideas that come to my mind and trying to turn them into articles. I try to write every week and maintain a "buffer" of two weeks in case I cannot write for some time. But for writing a book, I follow a totally different process. I write every day until I have the first draft, then I proofread it, fix what needs to be fixed, and add illustrations. It requires more discipline.
For the writing process itself (either for the newsletter or for a book), I like to write a first draft without taking care of the redaction or other details. Then I polish it iteratively until I think it is clear enough for someone that doesn't know me or has never read about that topic.
What kind of advice could you give people considering or getting started with technical writing?
Just have fun! Your articles will get better with time and practice, but the important thing is to enjoy the process. Besides that, if you don't have a clear goal that drives your writing journey, you'll eventually burn out. IMO, having fun and a clear goal is key to being constant. But at the beginning just optimize for the fun part.
Any closing words you’d like to share with the readers of The Tech Writers Stack?
First of all, you are in the right place. The Tech Writers Stack has a lot of amazing tech writers that know their stuff. This is a good place to look for good and interesting information. I would love to see more writers coming and adding all kinds of content and points of view. It is important to have a place on the Internet to consume good and noise-free content and to share with other people that just want to produce high-quality articles. Our digital lives and identities are almost more important than our non-digital lives and identities. Let's create more safe digital spaces like this one!
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Very cool to get you know you a little here, José!
This line got me: "Under the Hype is the product of some accumulated discomfort"
Oh man, I know that feeling well.
Well done, guys!