Michael J. vs. Mahmoud A.: A Study in Conflict

It's sure been a busy few weeks in the newsrooms. The sudden death of pop legend Michael Jackson was not only a media mega-event, it was an astute career move on his part, dramatically increasing his music sales; perhaps he should have died more often. (For those of you who thinking I'm being cold, sober up, and read this.)

What's astounding is how coverage of Jackson's death completely obliterated the other much more important event: the ongoing protests in Iran. Iran's population is 70 million - over twice that of Canada's. More people would be affected by a change in the Iranian government than by Jackson's death.

Twitter Twatter
I could talk about how these two stories are connected because they're both excellent examples of how new technologies such as Twitter and cell phone cameras allowed the news to spread so quickly. But plenty of techno talking heads have already observed this. What's more interesting to me is how these two stories are connected because they show the ultimate result of conflict: trying to mix two diametrically opposed ideas and obtain a successful result.

Mahmoud the Madman
Iran's conflict is obvious. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a delusional psychopath of a president, is trying to run the country as a "theocratic democracy", which makes as much sense as a 600 page "quick start guide". A state can be a theocracy or a democracy - it cannot be both. The protests arose as a direct result of this conflict. They would not have occurred if elections weren't allowed in the first place or if Iran was a real democracy. It is the conflict between these two ideas that caused all the ruckus.

Madman in the Mirror
Jackson's conflict is subtler, as it's the conflict within one person instead of an entire nation. Jackson was a brilliant and gifted musician, dancer and performer. The problem was that he thought this also made him a brilliant and gifted person, so much so that he raised himself to the status of a demi-god. His massive statutes and endless tributes to himself are ample proof of this.

Jacko thought he could do no wrong, and this included doing whatever he wanted to innocent children. You could say his downfall began November 16th, 2006, for on that date he was booed at the World Music Awards in England, and left the stage visibly shocked. The real world's view of Jackson had come crashing into Jackson's view of himself. Death through addiction was the ultimate conflict resolution.

Communication Conflicts
Conflicts like these, where two opposing entities try to occupy the same place, exist in our profession. They include non-technical communicators, primarily developers and marketers, pretending to be technical communicators.

A marketing technical communicator or a programmer technical communicator is as much of an oxymoron as Iran's theocratic democracy. The result can be a guide from the marketing department that constantly tells users how wonderful the product is and thanking them for purchasing it, without really telling them how to use it. Alternatively, if written by a programmer, the guide is hyper-technical, generally incomprehensible, and filled with such lovely phrases as: "Make sure the two modules play nicely with each other."

Internal Documentation
Of course, it's easy to make fun of marketers and developers, because that's what they're there for. Other conflicts involve us and the actual work we do. On the one hand, our profession demands that we are honest and open with our readers, and tell them what they need to know to use the thing we are documenting. On the other hand, there is pressure not to tell users every single problem that could occur in the product, lest we scare them off. An experienced technical communicator, working with the product manager, will steer the right path between these two opposing goals. It's a dirty job, but it sure beats working in a slaughterhouse.

A more serious conflict, akin to Jackon's internal conflict, is the one within some technical communicators who really should not be technical communicators. Maybe they've changed. Maybe they never really had a passion for words, clarity and the thrill of creating a complex table or a clear and succinct instruction. (I still love the smell of Visio in the morning.) Whatever the reason, communicators who are no longer interested in communicating had better find something else to do, because eventually, as with Michael and Mahmoud, the world will finally catch up with them.

Give Me Some Credit

People love their credit cards, and why not? A slim piece of plastic allows you to buy almost anything at any time; you don't even have to leave your home. There's just one small detail: eventually, you must pay it all back. And if you can't do this right away, the credit card companies are more than happy to oblige, and will lend you the money at an obscene interest rate.

Millions of people don't realize this, and simply pay the minimum balance because, hey, isn't it easier to pay $30 now rather than $1,000 now? Credit card companies love people who think like this.

Deadbeat, and Proud of It

I, on the other hand, along with my financially intelligent peers, am scrupulous about paying off the balance each month, in full. In addition, I pay no annual fee, and actually receive back 1% of everything I spend in free groceries. Over the years, this has added up to thousands of dollars.

Credit card companies hate me. They have an interesting name for people like me who pay their balance in full: deadbeats. We're deadbeats because we don't provide any extra income to these companies.

Now, however, the number of "deadbeats" may be increasing, thanks to recently proposed Canadian government legislation. It includes a minimum 21-day interest-free grace period on all new transactions when people pay their balance in full by the due date. The other two main changes involve documentation; that is, the infamous Credit Card Statement.

An Inconvenient Document

Under the new law, grace periods and interest rates would have to be clearly displayed in a summary box on the statement. That's important, but it's not the biggest change.

The biggest change is that the statement would clearly indicate how long it would take you to pay off your balance if you only made the minimum payments every month.

It is this omission of a single, small piece of data from this document that has cause more grief, more financial suffering, and more debt than anything else.

Loan Shark, Inc.

For example, let's assume you have a $2,000 balance and the interest rate is 19% (a fairly common rate). If the minimum payment allowed is 3% of this balance, and you can only make this payment, then your monthly payments will be $60. It will take you a whopping 14.5 years to pay off this debt, and you'll pay an astounding $2,007.03 in interest, just over 100% of the entire amount you borrowed! (To try more numbers, use this calculator.)

How many people would have paid off their balances sooner if they had known this? Now you can begin to see why the banks fought against this legislation. They (and many lawyers) are the antithesis of our profession, because they wage war against the most cherished principle of technical communication:

Tell readers what they need to know to help them succeed.

The Matter of Dark Text

Physicists have many odd ideas, but one of their oddest surely is dark matter. It is the dense, invisible stuff which fills the universe, but its existence can't be proven directly, hence the term dark. It also has a sister: dark energy. Dark energy, like dark matter, is also invisible and cannot be directly proven to exist. However, dark energy appears to explain why the universe is not only expanding, but doing so at an accelerated rate.

Scientists are working hard to find out which of these two things is more abundant in the universe. If there is more dark matter than dark energy, then the gravity of the dark matter could eventually cause the universe to stop expanding and then start shrinking, collapsing into a single point, in a very noisy event called a "big crunch". Alternatively, if there's more dark energy than dark matter, it could mean that the universe will continue to expand but, like spots on an expanding balloon, everything will be pulled further and further away from each other, resulting in a very cold, lonely universe.

The good news is that either scenario won't happen for billions of years. The bad news is that in either case, all living things will cease to exist. To paraphrase Einstein, "Bummer."

Fortunately, the other two qualities of our universe, space and time, don't have a corresponding "dark" component; that is, there's no such thing as dark space or dark time, except perhaps on Star Trek. However, there is a corresponding component in our profession, and it is called dark text.

Dark Text Matters

Dark text refers to the many layers of hidden meaning in any text segment. It ranges from the implied meaning that the author intended, or that the reader infers, to much deeper, more hidden meanings.

Here's a simple example:

To print a document, click Print.

The dark text of this step is:

• a document is a piece of paper
• you'll need a printer to print something
  
• "clicking" involves position the cursor on a monitor over a certain graphical element
• the printer must be connected to a computer and must be configured correctly
  

Darker text could include:

• you should be careful before you print something: once it's printed, you can't "undo" it
• the printer must have toner and paper; electricity would also be helpful
• if you can't figure this out, call your 11-year old relative who knows more than you do about computers
  

There's Nothing Funny About Funny Money

Here is a more interesting example. In stores, you often see this sign:

We do not accept $50 or $100 bills.

The first level of dark text is derived from the fact that this statement does not explicitly tell the reader what to do or not do. So the "obvious" (or lighter) dark text is:

Don't even try to give us $50 or $100 bills.

The next level of dark text is:

We don't want counterfeit money, which typically is $50 or $100 bills.

However, there is a third level of dark text, which is darker (and more sinister) than these two other levels.

Because we don't accept $50 or $100 bills, we will accept $5, $10 and $20 bills, even if they are counterfeit.

This, in fact, is exactly what has been reported by the authorities. Counterfeiters know that unless stores are checking every bill they get, they will simply assume the lower denomination bills are legitimate. These stores have inadvertently given a sign to these criminals that they will take their fake money.

What, then, should the sign say, to scare away any potential counterfeiters? Perhaps something like this:

WARNING! We check all paper currency to make sure it is not counterfeit. If you try to use counterfeit money here, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Punishment can include a major fine and imprisonment for up to 14 years.

Note that most of the dark text has been removed. This is what is known as "writing from the user's perspective".

* * *

As technical writers, we must be aware of dark text, and where possible, try to minimize it. It's true that we cannot possibly document all of the hidden meaning in text, nor should we. Still, much information may be hidden or very subtle and must be exposed or more clearly stated. To decide when to expose dark text, you need to ask yourself:

Would a typical user need to know this fact in order to more effectively use the thing I am documenting?

The goal is to give users all the information they need to do their jobs, and no more than that. This is an axiom of technical communication, and will be so until the end of the universe.