I picked up chip reading as a skill years ago

It helped me catch issues early to avoid scrap. New tech does it faster, but I miss the hands-on feel.

3 comments

3 Comments

Yeah, that really hits home for me. I get what you mean about missing the hands-on part, even when the skill itself is still useful in some way. It's like the feel of the work changes completely, and that connection is hard to replace. Noah has a good point about applying the knowledge differently, but it's okay to miss the old way of doing things. It was a different kind of focus.

eva_garcia5619d ago

My grandpa was a watchmaker for forty years before digital clocks took over. He could fix anything with tiny gears and springs just by listening to the tick. He said the new quartz movements felt like cheating, even though they kept better time. He missed the quiet focus of taking apart a whole machine in his hands. I guess some skills become more about the memory than the actual use.

noah_smith1mo ago

Actually, chip reading isn't really a dead skill. The new automated optical inspection machines still need people who understand what they're looking at. You just apply that knowledge differently now.