On Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 02:54:34PM -0700, Heather Madrone wrote: [...] > Also, if you are walking in San Francisco, all of the route-finding > assistants insist that the shortest walking route goes straight over > the steepest hill in the neighborhood. They don't seem to think that > you wouldn't want to go to the top of Nob Hill and descend the > Broadway steps. This means I am often better off with my own dead > reckoning in the City than Siri's or Google's.
Well, people forgot how to read topographical maps (and city plans), while computers are not there yet. Back when I was driving, I used to memorize my routes by looking at city plan or other maps (when driving beyond city limits). I also keep making fun of people driven into rivers and plowed fields by their gps. I know I am bad. > Tomasz Rola wrote on 8/20/18 2:06 PM August 20, 2018: > >>Speaking of skills obsoleted by technology... what other skills do we no > >>longer use? > > > >Handwriting. After realizing I might join the club of loosers, I > >planned and reintroduced manual writing back into my day. Not as much > >as when I was taking notes every day, but still. Those are small pages > >for humanity, but big pages for a human. Now I have a habit to have a > >notebook(s) and some pens around me, whenever I might want to reach > >them. Also, I actually take notes from read books, on paper. > > I've started doing that, too. My handwriting had deteriorated, and I > felt that it was a skill I should use instead of losing. I've > discovered that I have a different mindset with pen and paper than I > do with mouse and keyboard (or touchscreen). Handwriting invites the > mind to be expansive, to stop and consider the flow of words on the > page, to be more present. > > Also, I am learning to be a portraitist of birds, which I sketch > with colored pencil in a notebook. There is something about trying > to get the colors, textures, and shadows just right that I find > deeply satisfying, although I still have a great deal to learn. I do not do much drawing but would like to. For a moment I just peek at blogs of people who do, or watch some tutorial (not very often). I count on "this" will come by itself when the time is right. Fascinating stuff. Other skills missing in action: - programming anything in assembly (or any level below C, or even at level of C - i.e. direct manipulations of memory and stuff in it) [*] - computing with pen and pencil (plus and minus most people will do, I think, but throw at them multiplication or division and they are toast) [*] - like above, but without paper and pencil [*] (inside limits of poor short term human memory) - those who can, now try logarithms on paper (no, do not look it up, I know there is approximation formula but do you remember it?) - and using actual logarithmic scale, when one can find them at all - playing chess without chessboard - collecting edible mushrooms from the woods - even going to the woods and laying there for longer while - repairing one's tv set, radio or anything electronic - understanding one's computer from transistor up (I have read there were such people, really) - bottom posting and composing emails [*] :-) - sending postcards [*] - maintaining a horse in usable condition - maintaining one's own car or motorcycle - critical thinking is leaving the building, by some claims, whatever it really is [*] I can, I do or I could after some refreshing because I did -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] **
