We have come through a strange cycle in programming, starting with the
creation of programming itself as a human activity. Executives with the
tiniest smattering of knowledge assume that anyone can write a program,
and only now are programmers beginning to win their battle for recognition
as true professionals. Not just anyone, with any background, or any
training, can do a fine job of programming. Programmers know this, but
then why is it that they think that anyone picked off the street can do
documentation? One has only to spend an hour looking at papers written
by graduate students to realize the extent to which the ability to
communicate is not universally held. And so, when we speak about computer
program documentation, we are not speaking about the psychology of
computer programming at all -- except insofar as programmers have the
illusion that anyone can do a good job of documentation, provided he is
not smart enough to be a programmer.
-- Gerald Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming
