Regularly, I have to document workflows and setup instructions, and I always have to assume they know nothing. Some of it is that I really don't know how technical people are going to be and whether they can fill in the blanks (there are a few folks that I know I can write very basic outline and they can fill in the blanks, but that is like 5% of the people I deal with) and some of it is that I have to assume they are not native English speakers. So often times I really write it in simple terms... and find people often copying snippets of what I wrote to supplement their documentation. For instance, instead of saying "edit the file and make change xyz", I found I have to write "type 'vi test.txt' and then move to the line that contains xyz..." even for documentation that is directed just for my team.
Totally.
And its ugly cousin, where I'm being treated like a moron by level 1 tech support. I try to get in front of that early in any call. "I know you're supposed to behave like I know nothing about computers, because I worked helpdesk at one point myself, but I'm an IT systems programmer with X years experience." Sometimes this works great, the person on the other line is happy to be working with a peer, and feels free to ask more advanced questions/directions, like "what's your DNS set to?" rather than walking me through a ten-step process to find it.
And other times... [headbangdesk].
I once had to call someone
in my own department because my work laptop battery was dead. I identified myself and my role to her. And she walked me through the stupid, obvious questions anyway. At one point I lost my patience enough to mutter to myself, "treating me like an idiot," she decided she'd heard an f-word, and made a formal complaint. The managers involved accepted my explanation, but I still got a counseling sheet in my record, and was asked to make an apology.
She never got it, and she never will.
