1. Technical writer screams in the night

Hell no! Not in a million years! Not a chance!

My name is Mitja (family name Tanjga), soon to be 52. I am a technical writer.

Learning to be but as James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits says if you state that you are a musician rather than you are learning to play the violin you are changing your identity. So, I am a technical writer. I have changed my identity!

I was researching this field for the past few months since my friend Mirko told me that I could help his firm as a technical writer. Mirko is my friend and the owner of an IT company.

First, when he said I could help him with something I thought he needed somebody to help him move the heavy desk in his office or a piano.

New career?

Hell no! Not in a million years! Not a chance!

Why not? Because when I was nineteen I wanted to build ships. Big white ships. I even enroll the Faculty of Machine and Naval Architecture in Zagreb, Croatia. It was the end of the 80ties and the country was Yugoslavia.

Since then I lived in 7 different countries (or is it 8?) and physically moved 58 times from different flats, rooms, and trailers. I worked as a tennis coach, barista, popular science magazine editor, MS Office teacher, faculty teacher, web designer (MS Front Page, WordPress), head of the IT department, producer of women’s and kid’s clothing, owner of several textile stores, tennis racquets stringer, can’t remember more.

New career. Hell no!

But Mirko, my friend, and IT company owner, just said like we are talking about drinking water, and not about serious career change: “It is perfect for you. You won’t be a programmer, but you have a technical background. I need somebody who is an outsider. Somebody who has an outside view. I don’t need a developer or programmer to write about API documentation. I need an outsider perspective.” Hell no! Not in a million years! Not a chance!

After a few days and a minor nervous breakdown (hopefully with no serious brain damage), I start reading about technical writing. Who are technical writers? Which background do they have? Are there any courses online? A middle-size bee hive in my head.

Tomorrow I’ll call Mirko and tell him to go to hell and he can bring his idea. You know, Mirko is my friend and an IT company owner. He is in the IT business for 20 years, maybe he knows something I don’t know. Maybe I missed something?

New career. Hell no! Not in a million years! Not a chance! A middle-size bee hive, I told you.

So, after several months of fighting Mirkos idea, I finally start writing at Hashnode and now at medium.com. You know, Mirko is my friend and an IT company owner.

At the end of this part about the headline. “Screams in the night” sound like the ground-shaking earthquake headline, doesn’t it?

New career. Hell no! Not in a million years! Not a chance!

You know this means Yes!

My name is Mitja and I am a technical writer.

I have changed my identity!