The guy who knows about computers is the last person you want to have creating documentation for people who don't understand computers.
We want a world with both historians and novelists, don't we? Not with one or the other. Every fiction writer crosses the line that divides artistry and documentation - or erases it.
Effective stream-of-consciousness narration is the product of verbal precision, not just of literal documentation. It is decidedly not a matter of unedited free-association.
There are, for example, exemptions in FOIA in which the government can withhold certain kinds of information, and the courts have recognized that there is certain documentation that do deserve protection, that certain privileges do apply and do deserve protection.
I actually think that 'States of Union' will be a lifelong endeavor for me. It won't take up all my energy as it has in recent years, but I imagine that I will always continue to add to the body of work - the project of documentation will never be entirely complete.
At MIT, mostly what I did was documentation. I sort of read things. Wrote some descriptions of various aspects of the file system. Did not really do very much programming at all. At least on Multics.
I'm a hoarder. For me, documentation has always been key, and I've kept everything from my past.
Growing up, my mother and grandparents often talked about our family's Native American heritage. As a kid, I never thought to ask them for documentation - what kid would?