| Indeed. To elaborate... 1) Documenting things does cost, especially time. Writing good, clear, cohesive documentation is even more costly. Bad documentation can be costly by consuming the reader's time beyond what is justified. 2) Documentation often needs to be updated and therefore maintained. This is costly. 3) Failure to maintain documentation can leads to even bigger costs because of the confusion and misunderstanding outdated documentation can introduce. 4) At companies, culture is not necessarily supportive of documentation because of the immediate cost of documenting and maintaining docs. You can very well be punished for documenting things, and in doing so, may sacrifice meeting more important objectives. Even documenting things helps others in the company, if the company punishes you for it (and while perhaps rewarding others who profit from your docs), you're not being a hero or a martyr, feelings of moral superiority notwithstanding. You're being a fool. You're not doing charitable work at a company, after all. 5) "Duty" is a strong word. There is no general duty to document things. You can't just assert a duty exists by fiat, without establishing a basis for that duty. There are plenty of good things we can do, but are not duties. |