I more recognize numbers these days than remember them, although I could
probably manage most family members' numbers, and likely my own.
Addresses are going too, as I increasingly delegate navigation to my phone.
I'm trying to do less of that, although I do find it extremely helpful
to have my phone find the fastest route given current traffic
conditions. Still, I want to retain my excellent sense of direction and
geology. It would be a sad day if I lost my ability to be plunked down
pretty much anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area and find my way to
pretty much anywhere else in that area.
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.
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.
--hmm
