Are You A Typewriter Repairman?

I believe the youngsters today call it keyboarding instead of typing, but when I was in high school typing class was not conducive for most macho aspiring young men.  Most gravitated toward football or shop.  In the 70s it was just one step up from home economics, only you did not get to make french toast to eat during school.  I was one of about three guys in the class.  Everyday were were expected to show up and type what we found in our workbooks to be turned in at the end of the semester.  The only problem was that I was so busy zooming the girls and generally hanging out, or just daydreaming.  After Thanksgiving I realized I had only completed about a tenth of the assignments.  So, I went to a typewriter repair shop in Texarkana, Texas and rented a refurbished Remington manual typewriter, like the ones at school, borrowed one of the typing books from the library and caught up my work.  Believe it or not, slacking off all did me a world of good.  First, I came to appreciate the fairer sex, and being one of the few boys in a class full of a lot of girls did have its perks.  Second, catching up forced me to become a speed typist (if not an accurate speller).  Third, I actually came to enjoy typing. The next year I spent my summer money to buy an IBM Selectric with a typeball that could be changed to display different fonts.  I can assure you that I was the only guy in high school with an slick IBM Selectric.  Oh yeah!  Oh yeah!  I found typing to be a great skill to help overcome my dyslexia.

Times move on and so does technology.  Up until the 80s there were millions of typewriters in offices throughout this country.  Typewriter repairmen would go from office to office fixing typewriters.  If they could not fix the machine on the spot, they might leave a replacement and take yours back to their shop where they would lord over it much like Emmett did over small appliances on the later Andy Griffin Shows.  Texarkana only had a couple of typewriter repair shops and they stayed busy.  In my version of the 70s Show times were still good for typewriter repairmen.  (Sorry, I did not know any women doing the work).  It was constant work, dependable work, and reliable work.  They must of thought the good times might not have ever ended.  But, with the advent of computing, the good old fashion typewriter has died with the exception of a few collectors.  Except for the keyboard there was not much shared between the typewriter and the computer.  There are still a few typewriter repairmen, I am sure, but by and large they are becoming extinct as a result of technology and a changing market.

In less than 10 years the computer revolution essentially wiped out typewriters.  I kept mine for a good while just to type envelopes, but once it needed any substantial repairs it was trash.

I think the point of the typewriter is illustrative of the incredible speed of the Third Wave in creating early obsolescence.  It can occur both in terms of the equipment we use, but also in the manner we are expected to adapt our working practices.  It is generally no longer an option to believe that you can wait out obsolescence until you retire.  It is easy to become antiquated too quickly for that.

So, the question becomes whether or not you are essentially a typewriter repairman in a market that does not much need typewriter repairmen any longer?  Does your office eschew cheap tech in exchange for remaining comfortable working with things and systems that you have learned to find comfortable?  In an increasing competitive market as to overhead, costs and your personal time, are you not adapting quickly enough?  It is too easy to stay with the devil you know and not change.  But, the devil you do not know is probably going to eventually eat you alive.

You do not want to be the typewriter repairman of the legal profession going blindly or dispassionately about your work not noticing the rapid, and sometimes catastrophic, change about you.  Its change or be changed.

Comments

[lawyer]

For any remaining typewriter repairmen out there willing to retrain, my office is in dire need of good IT and copier repairmen. No matter how complex or evolved, laws, like machines, will need smart people to fix them when things go wrong.

[Luke]

This reminded me of working on a project several years ago with a guy who had been the head of IT at a now defunct local paper. Even though he was nominally an IT guy with an initially impressive resume, he had been looking for a job for years and we soon figured out why - he was a dinosaur. His skillset was completely obsolete but he clung to it because he worked hard acquiring it, it was complicated (and therefore impressive to others) and it was what he knew. He suggested his obsolete technologies of choice for every problem over cheaper, easier solutions that he didn't have an expertise in. After working his way up the ladder he had adapted to an organization instead of to a function. Once the organization went away his skills no longer had the same value. Now he was being beat out for jobs by kids half his age with no degrees, much less work experience, but who could get the job done because they had no investment in the past.

I'm going to go relearn how to play video games now. Just in case.