Recently the blogosphere has been abuzz with listings of obsolete skills. It was started by Robert Scoble and was focused initially on skills obsoleted by technological advancements. But as with any idea that makes the rounds, it has expanded well beyond that and currently boasts its own website (a warning to visitors from far into the future - that's about 6 months in internet time - that this link might not still work.)
Not to be left out, I decided to come up with an SFSignal themed list (some flat-out stolen from the site above, but others original) and invite the readers here to come up with their own.
- Using the Dewey decimal system and library card catalogs - largely obsoleted by search engines.
- Two spaces after a period - for whatever reason the HTML system compressed these and putting them back in is more challenging than it should be (
nbsp;takes WAY too long to type.) - Building a crystal radio - I suppose somebody might still do this, but there's little point in doing this now despite my intense belief from 30 years ago that I would someday have my own SETI project with these.
- Reading a sundial - lots of things can be gleaned from one, although knowing the impact of precession on older sundials is hard to know.
- Phrenology - speaks for itself.
- Knowing many, many lines from Monty Python movies / shows - sadly not too many people find this as funny anymore
- Reading magazines about new science fiction - the web has nearly completely replaced this despite a few holdouts
What about you?
Comments (16)
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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Monday March 10, 2008 at 8:03 PM
© 2008 SF Signal
I still double space after periods. It just feels wrong not to.
I'll have to think on my obsolescence, though.
Posted by Joe Sherry on Monday March 10, 2008 at 9:15 PM
I deal with students, every day, who believe that library cataloging systems are obsolete, and that a search engine can get them everything or even most of what they want.
Those are the students who consistently get Ds.
Posted by Jess Nevins on Monday March 10, 2008 at 9:37 PM
I still double space after periods, too. And can find things in a library (I work in one over the summers). And if the kids these days aren't laughing at Monty Python, well... their loss.
Obsolescence, here I come!
(Worst part is, I'm only twenty.)
Posted by Claire on Monday March 10, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Ugh. Those two spaces after a period are soooo obsolete! As an editor, I constantly have to correct this. I learned to type on a typewriter - before it was called keyboarding - and I have managed to learn the "one space after periods" rule. I wish the lawyers and accountants tha I've worked for would learn it.
Posted by Holly on Monday March 10, 2008 at 11:14 PM
While hardly worth the bandwidth it's gotten so far, I have never used the period double space thing. I never even heard of it until recently; guess they didn't waste spaces in Texas schools!
Back to obsolete skills (none stolen but possibly redundant; I haven't peeked at their answers):
writing actual letters
using a paper encyclopedia
looking in a dictionary for spelling
Morse code
analog computing (I used to work on these both electronic and pneumatic devices for a living and stunned a teacher in my college when I presented an actual example of a massive pneumatic computer!)
kerosene warning flares at construction sites
party lines for phones
hand cranked (for dialing) phones (Yeah, I'm old!)
outhouses
wind generators on farms (Oh, wait! These are coming back!)
using cranks for car starters
pushing cars to start them
cane pole fishing
I'm gonna quit. This is depressing. I hate to think about all the changes my 94 yo Dad has seen. And how he perceives it. Just realizing how technology has advanced in my lifetime is amazing. And the Singularity is yet to come!
Posted by Old Bogus on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 1:21 AM
Oddly, I get a feeling of standing in Kitty Hawk, NC about a century ago and crying over the lost world that does not know how not to fly anymore. Yes, we are forgetting how to do things but it does not have to be a bad thing. Going through the list at the obsolete site I can barely find something that would be worth knowing how to do today. Technology is advancing at a ludicrous pace and if we stop to look behind, behind is where we will stay. I am not saying that these skills should be forgotten. There are people who's job is to preserve those things. What I am saying is that my school should have taught me how to touch type instead of doing all those penmanship drills.
Posted by General X on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 3:32 AM
How about making a list of skills that are widely available now that have not existed or were limited ten to twenty years ago.
Posted by General X on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 3:40 AM
General X - I think the pont of this exercise is to gain perspective. To acknowledge that progress is made and as a result some things might not be worth mastering now because they will be obsolete relatively soon.
I don't lament the obsolecence, but I do lament the time spent acquiring some of them that are no longer useful. Not all of them - I enjoyed all those Monty Python episodes.
As an aside, I am 39. I was sitting with an intern (age 22) yesterday and noticing all the pop culture differences between us. He had never seen Speed Racer, Duckman, American Graffitti, Get Smart, and a slew of other TV/movies. Of course, I've never seen American Pie and he had seen it and the sequels. 
Posted by Scottsh on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 8:41 AM
Scott - does your wife know about your 22 year old intern? And do you want her to know??? Make with the money distributions 
Posted by Tim on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 10:38 AM
Using two spaces after a period is a holdover from when typewriters used monospaced type. Two spaces were used to make the beginnings of sentence more clear for the reader. Computers mostly use proportional fonts now, so those two are superfluous, or even detrimental to layout. Unless you're using a monospaced font. Maybe.
You can always tell who learned to type before computers (and proportional fonts) were in common use (I did! On a manual typewriter. By candlelight. In a blizzard, uphill both ways.). And you can tell who is dogmatic and unwilling to embrace change by their insistence on using those double spaces in the face of obsolescence.
Posted by doggo on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Usually a lurker, but how much fun!
I can start a one-match fire, and I know both semaphore and morse codes. I also know pi to 50 digits. I am not sure how technology has made that obsolete, as you can't fit them on a calculator, but certainly you can google them in 3 seconds.
Posted by Sarah on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 5:23 PM
doggo - I can't help it. I learned to type on IBM Selectrics and was taught to use two spaces. It's very hard to stop doing it - my muscle memory hits two spaces after a period without me doing it.
Posted by scottsh on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 7:21 PM
How about researching by checking old files on microfiche? A lot of libraries don't even have those any more.
Or editing audio recordings or video footage by cutting tape?
Or changing the channel on TV by hand?
Posted by bloginhood on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 11:57 PM
Proof reading type (linotype or hand set).
I learned to do this when I was 5. One must be able to recognize errors while reading upside down and backwards. I can now read almost as fast this way as normally, and often have read every thing on someone else's desk before I realize what I have done.
Posted by Cynthia K. Dalton on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 6:09 PM
Unfortunately, crystal radios have really fallen out of favor, even with ham radio operators, most of whom got interested in radio via building them. Doesn't help that there is not much to listen to with them.
I still know how to edit analog videotape, since the facility I work at still used analog tape until very very recently. Unlike crystal radios, though, I can't wait to forget.
Posted by David Moisan on Sunday April 06, 2008 at 7:57 PM