Thiiink: Ideas, Imagination, and Innovation in GIS

Dexterity of the hands and mind, and words per minute, are these part of the skills that were one time considered laughable by the elders but now are manifesting themselves as vital skills in the ability to compete in today’s knowledge market?

Once again, I’m at the airport, wired into the hotspot, setting up my Linux machine, writing emails, browsing a website, and biting the sides of my cheeks to keep from laughing.  The guy next to me is definitely old school, probably even had a secretary at one point in his life.  The markings on his bag, laptop, and login splash screen show that he is in the game of engineering consulting (with a rather large public engineering company).  Engineering consulting is that wonderful world where a client gets dinged for the inexperience and inefficiencies of the staff, where timelines are guidelines, and delivery rhymes with “change orders”, time is rounded to the 5 minute interval, and charge codes are needed before anything can get done (including make a photocopy).

So why am I laughing, well given this person’s age I would expect him to be a person with seniority and experience (which means tres cher).  Yet watching him type with just one finger on just one hand — come on — what era are we living in?  Yes, knowledge and experience are important in the consulting world, but isn’t the ability to communicate (aka write) equally important, especially in the realm where things must be documented and explained?  Wouldn’t you expect…one second, he just sped up, now at 15 characters per minute, nope, I’m wrong, that was just some pounding on the backspace key…that you (as a client especially) wouldn’t be slammed with invoices that simply cover off the inability for someone to type?

Gotta shutter down, boarding time for my flight, I’ll get back to more technical things in the coming weeks.