{"id":25507,"date":"2020-01-07T12:50:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=25507"},"modified":"2019-12-25T20:54:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T01:54:07","slug":"feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Feel better about the time you’ve invested in writing documentation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During a recent rental car excursion I became curious about the USB-C port in the front of the Nissan Maxima. Could one run a laptop from the car, for example? I decided to open the glovebox and read the specs from the owner’s manual. After one year and more than 20,000 miles of rental by perhaps 100 different drivers…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(still in its shrink wrap)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a recent rental car excursion I became curious about the USB-C port in the front of the Nissan Maxima. Could one run a laptop from the car, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-nerdism","category-consumerism"],"yoast_head":"\nFeel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During a recent rental car excursion I became curious about the USB-C port in the front of the Nissan Maxima. Could one run a laptop from the car, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1139\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Feel better about the time you’ve invested in writing documentation\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\"},\"wordCount\":72,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881-1520x902.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Computer nerdism\",\"Consumerism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\",\"name\":\"Feel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881-1520x902.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1139},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Feel better about the time you’ve invested in writing documentation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\",\"name\":\"philg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2047,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"philg\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Feel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Feel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","og_description":"During a recent rental car excursion I became curious about the USB-C port in the front of the Nissan Maxima. Could one run a laptop from the car, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/","og_site_name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","article_published_time":"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1139,"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"philg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"philg"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/"},"author":{"name":"philg","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"headline":"Feel better about the time you’ve invested in writing documentation","datePublished":"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/"},"wordCount":72,"commentCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881-1520x902.jpg","articleSection":["Computer nerdism","Consumerism"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/","name":"Feel better about the time you've invested in writing documentation - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881-1520x902.jpg","datePublished":"2020-01-07T17:50:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_32881.jpg","width":1920,"height":1139},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/feel-better-about-the-time-youve-invested-in-writing-documentation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Feel better about the time you’ve invested in writing documentation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/","name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","description":"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e","name":"philg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","width":2047,"height":2560,"caption":"philg"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paokyZ-6Dp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25509,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25507\/revisions\/25509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}