“Being good at business writing, technical writing, and documentation.
AI can do it better and faster than any of us can now.”
“Reading a map.
I knew how by age 11, and so did my kids.
Most people use their phones now, including me.”
Another good one is knowing how to format a floppy disk.
You couldn’t do a damn thing on a computer back in the day without it.
u/[deleted]
3.
“Very nice cursive handwriting.
Boy, did we practice that a lot in early elementary school.
Actually, thank you notes were more valued back then, too, it seems.”
“How to properly use a typewriter.
I’m not talking about hitting some keys to get characters to appear on the paper.
I doubt many people could even find the platen.”
u/GraphiteGru
5.
“Driving a stick shift.”
“This may seem obscure, but being good at bowling.
Bowling teams were once a middle-class and blue (and pink) collar business networking-connection situation.
Every garage, salon, and government office had a bowling team for team-building purposes.
I saw the end of this in the 1970s.
Golf might share the same fate, and in many areas, it’s barely hanging on.
The only modern equivalent to bowling teams may be online video game friends.”
u/Think_Leadership_91
7.
“Working in a darkroom.
I considered myself a ‘special ninja’ because I could develop film and magically make images appear on paper.
Not so much.”
They cost upwards of five dollars per MINUTE to use and were nothing like searching for information today.
But I was a hot commodity during that time."
u/BlanstonShrieks
9.
“All girls were required to take a home economics class.
We had to be able to sew our own clothes.
“Being good at business writing, technical writing, and documentation.
AI can do it better and faster than any of us can now.”
u/CardiologistSweet343
11.
“Transcribing from a dictaphone.
I loved going to work, putting earphones in, and typing for hours at a time.
No need for dictation.”
“The fine art of conversation.
I talk to young kids nowadays, and they don’t know how to have a conversation.”
u/Gnarlodious
13.“Spelling.
When I was a kid, being a perfect speller was praised and rewarded.
But it’s undeniably true and real.”
u/Optimal-Scientist233
15.
“I was once a meter reader.
None of that matters now because everything is always available on people’s phones.”
u/FIREful_symmetry
17.
“My father-in-law was a very successful television repairman back in the day.
Repairing TVs is pretty much no longer done.”
“Bookkeeping used to be a high-demand job.
I know people who went to college for it.
u/Mean_Eye_8735
19.
“How to do math in one’s head.
Now, everyone has a calculator handy.”
20.“Typing.
Now anyone can hunt and peck a keyboard and get their desired results pretty quickly.”
u/ancientastronaut2
21.
“My daughter was a film projectionist at the movie theater.
There weren’t any scratches, marks, dots, or anything.
They were still commenting and staring at the digital projector.”
