How Does Writing Documentation Benefit Developers?

Like many developers, I used to feel that time spent writing documentation was time that could better be spent writing code. Over the decades, I have learned the value of writing documentation. In many cases, the learning process was far from pain-free.

But you can learn from my experiences and avoid the pain!

Here are a few of the reasons why developers should write documentation:

1. No matter how great a developer you think you are, your code contains bugs. Documenting your code is an excellent way to find bugs in your code. Once you have found the bugs, you can fix them!
2. Your documentation will provide others with insight into your code. This can help them understand your code more easily, which in turn can help them find bugs. If you are lucky, they might even fix them for you!
3. Your documentation can help users understand how to use your code, increasing the number of users. Your users will likely find more of your bugs. Again, if you are lucky, they might even fix them for you.
4. As the years turn into decades, you might find yourself wanting to do something else, perhaps a new open-source project, perhaps even something not at all connected to computing. The better your documentation, the easier it will be for someone else to keep your project alive. If no one can take over your project, your users will find you, making it difficult for you to pay sufficient attention to your new project.

So while it can make a lot of sense to write documentation in order to make your friendly technical writer's life a bit easier, it makes even more sense to do so to make your own life a lot better!