Obsolete Skills.

[gautrek]

How many do you know.

http://obsoleteskills.com/Skills/Skills

[Affentitten]

Some fun stuff in there. Particularly things that I learnt to do when training in analogue radio studdios in the late 1980s. Some of the things are a bit dubious though. How is 'using a longbow' an obsolete skill when some people still do it as a hobby? "Wearing a hat" is even more of a long bow to draw...

[Stalins Organ]

Lots of archers in the world still using longbows.

What is amusing is how many of the skills are recently obsolete and relating to the electronic age - in general society we don't know what went obsolete in the 1800's (for example) 'cos none of us were around to note it!

Irony isn't obsolete tho - check out the entry for "Identification of obsolete skills"

[hoolaman]

I'd say at least half of those are not even sligtly obsolete, and half are not even skills for that matter. EDIT: I just read the identifying obsolete skill entry, very good.

Cleaning a fish?! The guts don't automagically jump out of fish in the modern era.

My uncle did a three year newspaper typesetting apprenticeship which was completely obsolete within a few years of completion.

[Affentitten]

My uncle did a three year newspaper typesetting apprenticeship which was completely obsolete within a few years of completion.

Which was pretty much the case with my radio training. Within about 5 years everything had gone digital.

[Other Means]

Batch file programming? I wrote a batch file last week.

[JonS]

You guys might want to look up the definition of obsolete.

Technical obsolescence

Technical obsolescence may occur when a new product or technology supersedes the old, and it becomes preferred to utilize the new technology in place of the old.

Archery is obsolete - armies and (most) hunters use firearms now. Batchfile programming is obsolete because although some people do still use them, most people can get by quite happily without them by performing the same tasks in other ways.

[Stalins Organ]

Archery is obsolete as a weapon of war, but not as a sport.

Being a minority does not make something obsolete - it makes it a minority.

[JonS]

Being a minority does not make something obsolete - it makes it a minority.

It does if it was previously the majority, and there is no reasonable likelihood of it coming back into favour.

[Stalins Organ]

Rubbish - it means it is going to stay a minority.

If archery is obsolete as a sport then so is running and equestrian, since most people take cars now, swimming because boats and aircraft are better ways to get across bodies of water, shooting 'cos nuclear bombs are better and high explosives have killed more than bullets, all forms of manual power boats because power boats do it better, and all power boats because helicopters are a more recent invention.

Feel free to give more examples of things that are obsolete in such fashion.....

[JonS]

Do people making wooden wagon wheels as a hobby prove that wagons aren't obsolete?

Horses are obsolete as transport, so yeah, riding horses is an obsolete skill for most folk in most countries.

A/c did make passenger ships obsolete, yeah.

Nukes are not the most common way of waging war although for a period in the 1940s and 50s some serious thinkers did think that they made all other weapons obsolete.

There are plenty of applications where power boats have obsoleted row boats, yeah. You don't for example, see too many people rowing across Cook Strait.

Not sure what power boats have to do with helos? So I'll give you that one

[dieseltaylor]

SO's linky - I like it : )

There are many items on this list that are not really skills. A skill is defined as ability to use knowledge to perform a task.Some of the items on this list are not really skills, unless you think we're all just a bunch of trained apes.

Criteria to identify a skill:

1. Does the activity require knowledge and training
   
2. Will the activity result in some outcome influenced by the actions of number 1
   
3. etc.
   

Among the items that really are skills, many are not obsolete, except perhaps within the limited social circle of the submitter.

[JonS]

Well, according to SOs asinine take on it, nothing has ever gone obsolete as long as one person, somewhere in the world is still doing/using it

Nevertheless, just like a broken clock, he did accidentally highlight a point I was making: things (skills or objects/tools) rarely go obsolete in an absolute sense, rather they go obsolete in contexts or roles. Archery is obsolete as a weapon. Horses and ships are obsolete as transport (horses for anything, ships for people). Rowboats are obsolete as working vessels. Batchfile programming is obsolete as a skill that nearly everyone with a computer needs to know. &c.

[Stalins Organ]

Accidentally? Perhaps you missed the bit where I noted that archery was obsolete for war but not for sport?? That was my entire point you doofus - nice of you to gloss over it like that

Others you note: Waggon wheels - obsolete for transport, but apparently not for a view of Central Park. Liners - obsolete for transport across various ditches, but pretty good for a cruise in the sun.

I think perhaps you accidentally noticed that your argument was drivel and accidentally decided to slide out of it by adopting my point and then attacking me for daring to have it - if it is asinine for me to have the idea how come it is brilliant for you to adopt it from me?!

I guess the "S" in JonS today stands for "Slipperyer than a well oiled weasel"!

[Affentitten]

Of course horses and beasts of burden are not obsolete all over the place. They are still the preferred method in the 3rd world for those who can't afford a vehicle.

[JonS]

Aff: context? role? They mean things, I didn't just type them for the hell of it

[Michael Emrys]

Ever notice how the most vehement arguments are over the most trivial points? Not that I am claiming that that is what is going on here, of course.

Michael

[Stalins Organ]

I'd argue that with you...except it seems too important........