[Closed] Lost skills

Once when our car wouldn't start (early 90s), my Dad went through this long ritual of spraying this, pulling the other thing off.. all standard procedures in the 60s. Started itself in the end - dirty petrol or something, so his skills weren't necessary.

I can set and read an OS map, tie knots, build bivouacs, use a felling axe and could teach scouts all manner of good stuff they wouldn't let me these days. I can use a linotype machine and the new photoelectric ones, I know how to kern type. I once wrote a print estimating programme in Basic then those new fangled spreadsheets came along. My typewriter is now rusting away as is my shorthand notebook I had to use in journalist college.
I can judge distance and take photographs without a rangefinder on a plate camera and judge exposure without a meter, develop and print film.
In fact other than write bollox on internet forums all my skills are now unnecessary, I am useless in modern society so should now die off. 😉

"Dealing with shit cars?"

.... with the wrong tools

I had a problem with the carburettor on an old petrol transit. It was sucking in air from somewhere it shouldn't. I'm not a mechanic but I found that if I pushed the body of the carb in a certain direction it worked so for lack of anything else to hand I hammered a wooden wedge between the carb just to get me home.

it then got me to work again, and home again for a few weeks before it rattled out. So I made half a dozen more wedges and kept them in the glovebox. Occasionally at traffic lights I'd have to pop the bonnet and jump out, hammer a wooden stake into the engine like Van Helsing and be ready to drive away before the lights changed.

I can judge distance and take photographs without a rangefinder on a plate camera and judge exposure without a meter, develop and print film.
In fact other than write bollox on internet forums all my skills are now unnecessary, I am useless in modern society so should now die off

If I remember correctly George Eastman's suicide note read simply "my work is done" 🙁

BUT there is absolutely no way I am going back to slide rules and log tables either.

I used to love log/sin/cos tables when I was about 9 or 10. Barlow's 5 figure tables was my favourite......

Bunnyhop - Member
youngsters today don't think about starting at the bottom and working their way up.

maybe they might, if it was still possible to "work one's way up".

old people don't die anymore, they just carry on, earning a ****ing fortune.

and once, just once, in a blue moon, when an old giffer retires. who is chosen to replace him/her? - the patient youngster? (who's been diligently learning the trade, building relationships with suppliers+clients)

no, it's some other old bastard, earning even more money than the last one.

(i'm assuming they just swap jobs)

We are installing a new piece of signage outside our building incorporating a TV Screen, the difference in price between the standard outdoor and the superbright one to cope with direct sun was £5K! So I had to work out the angle of the sun and whether it would shine directly onto the screen, it took me 20secs on google as I didn't have an almanac to hand, and then 5mins with a map and a protractor to do this. Except some people in the office didn't believe this could be done at all never mind that I could do it.

Loved this

hammer a wooden stake into the engine like Van Helsing and be ready to drive away before the lights changed.

Handwriting. With your hands, and that. That must be a generation, tops, from being obsolete.

Hell yes. That was the biggest shock when I entered teaching several years ago; I was appalled by the state of kids handwriting, spelling and grammar - literacy in general.

I think I am correct (not my subject) in saying that pupils can gain a National qualification (N3..?) in Scotland using 'text speak'.

I really, truly hope that handwriting never become obsolete.

Darning socks... hah try asking her tell me what she says.. 😆

If the Garmin sat nav in my car is anything to go by the use of paper maps is a skill Garmin seem determined to preserve (I would have more faith in my 5 year old son to chose a sensible route)

This is my issue with satnav, I often know part of a route across country, but I don't want to fanny around with maps and sheets of paper with route directions on when I'm driving on my own, which is most often, but the likes of CoPilot will frequently show routes only on main A-roads, often going miles out of the way, but NavFree will actually give proper cross-country routes, you just have to use your head and zoom into the route to make sure it doesn't take you somewhere stupid, trying alternative parameters works here.

On the subject of starting cars using a choke, how many could start a car with a starting handle? My old '54 split-screen Morris Minor had a 1300 A-Series engine rather than the 950 side-valve, but it still had the facility to start it with a starting handle, which came in very handy on quite a few occasions in really cold weather.
Needed to be treated with respect, though; broken thumbs were a possibility otherwise.

Having a go at stuff. Most people I know just won't try an fix stuff or do a diy job, they seem to think because they haven't done it they can't do it. I am the opposite, if I need something done and someone else can do it, i assume that I can too and give it a whirl. Mostly I am right, I must be more awesome than my mates 😆

My job as a 'made to measure' curtain maker is a dying skill. I have to be able to cut patterns and pattern match.

a bloke on Pop Master (R2) the other day was a professional curtain hanger.

Flaperon - Of course why shouldn't they?

I think he was actually agreeing with you.

That was the biggest shock when I entered teaching several years ago; I was appalled by the state of kids handwriting, spelling and grammar - literacy in general.

I take pride in being able to string a sentence together, but my handwriting has always been appalling. Part of it is being left-handed - I'd probably have a support group at school these days - but discovering keyboards in the early 80s probably prevented me from refining it in adulthood. It's so shockingly bad that I started printing rather than writing so that others can read it, and now my printing has degenerated to a point where it's again a conscious effort to write readably for anyone who isn't me.

I don't expect "writing" to become a lost art for a while, but "handwriting" is almost certainly on borrowed time.

I don't expect "writing" to become a lost art for a while, but "handwriting" is almost certainly on borrowed time.

It wasn't until this subject came up in a few recent threads that I realised that I don't do 'handwriting' , in the joined up cursive sense, any more. Looking through a few of my old sketchbooks and notebooks looks like I haven't for at least 20 years. I don't think I ever decide to stop, obviously just fell out of the habit

Yesterday I realised I can't really read it anymore either. My gf found an old book of her dad photography notes - developing and darkroom stuff. Beautifully, neatly written.... but I couldn't really read it.

On the subject of starting cars using a choke, how many could start a car with a starting handle?

My first car was a Renault 6 (the 850cc engine version) and its starting handle was invaluable!
The yoof of today wouldn't even know what one was.

BUT there is absolutely no way I am going back to slide rules and log tables either.

I used a slipstick right up to going to college when I got my first calculator. A Sinclair Scientific - cost a fortune and the trig functions were crap.

Used 7 figure log tables for surveying as the calculators available weren't up to the job.

Cougar and mikewsmith win the thread imo!

I can write neatly, but it's frustratingly slow so I try to speed it up. This might come from the fact that I can type quickly so I am used to getting the words down fast.

On the subject of handwriting...during a recent period of unemployment I applied for a bursers job at a private school. No online applications, no cvs, they wanted a hand written letter. Took 10 attempts and untold hand cramps. You just dont do it any more. Didn't get the job by the way. Probably says a lot about the private education system and old time values.