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Martin Fowler0 Hot0 comments8 min read
Practitioner Voice
Jim Highsmith proposes 'Practitioner Voice' as a distinct writing category separate from academic writing and thought-leadership content. Drawing on feedback from Martin Fowler and decades of authorship experience, he argues that this style relies on authority earned through lived experience rather than credentials or platform, leaves tensions unresolved rather than packaging them into neat takeaways, keeps the author's judgment visibly present, and writes for readers who recognize patterns from their own experience rather than chasing broad appeal. He contrasts this with academic writing (which hides behind rigor) and thought leadership (which hides behind polish), and introduces a third failure mode he calls 'LLM Voice' - fluent AI-generated writing that mimics the style but carries no accountability because there's no person behind it who bears the consequences of the claims made.
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