I completely agree with this post and what a relief it is to read it from another programmer. I used to teach writing while in grad school and I often had Comp Sci students who were forced to take my class as part of their core requirements tell me how they didn't belong in a writing class. Why not? I would ask. Because we're computer science majors. We don't need writing skills. Argh! Anyway, I'm a programmer and a writer and I have to say that in ADDITION to good communication skills (gone are the days where the 22 year old "genius" who can't make eye contact and speaks only in code is considered valuable), close reading skills are a must. Let's face it. Programmers have to do a LOT of close, careful reading in order to learn. I don't know about you, but I do read a lot of programming books and I expect the same is true of those I work with. And I'm pretty sure that skim reading documentation isn't the best way to learn.