R and I were talking about the narrative of decline that is present in every generation. If you look at the texts that comprise Western civ, you'll find that members of each generation complain that the younger gen is just not up to the standards of the older gen.
Then I realized: Awwww. Hell, if that's true and each older gen has accurately characterized the younger gen, we musta been fan-frickin-tabulous-geniuses at one time.
I cashiered and waitressed pre-computer, so I know how to add, calculate tax rates, and figure out discounts in my head. Learned it in school, applied it regularly in life. I'm not a math genius, but I tend to disturb some people with my ability to quickly calculate on the fly while most people fumble around.
Here's thi HI-larious rub. For years I've been working with programs that sometimes require that I change the size of an object. Because I _can_ figure out in my head, how much I'd have to subtract from the width and length to get what I want while maintaining same aspect ratio, I NEVER once noticed (until a year ago) that all these programs have a scale feature and, with a click of a mouse and a steady hand, voila! I'd sit there, calcuate the needed dimensions, type them in by hand. Probably takes not much longer, but still takes longer and it adds up.
Am I dumb? No. I just never had a _reason_ to look for that shortcut tool.
Back to waitressing. I decided that I didn't want to waitress all my life, hard on the ol' paddies, so I I got me a job with an aspiring chain. Cried each Friday as I did the payroll, wondering WTH I had been thinking. I was grossing $240 for 50 hrs a week while they usually took home $200 for a 20 hr week. Swift move.
The waitresses didn't have to know the price of everything on the menu; everything was computerized. ONe day, I opened for lunch to discover the computers were down. As I stood there trying to hold a phone (pre cell), listening to the tech in NJ explain what to do, the waitresses all stood around worrying, "Looks like we can't open. Can't run a restaurant without a computer." And a number of them started grumbling about babysitters to pay, living paycheck to paycheck, and and they couldn't afford to lose $40 that day.
I grinned and said, "Awww, hell naw, just write the order, look up the price on the menu, add it all up and, here, I'll make you a tax chart so you can look up how much tax to charge."
R said earlier this evening, as we were discussing this thread, "Does it matter whether people know how to calculate simple interest? Who needs to? Have you ever gotten a loan based on a simple interest formula? Loaned someone money and used simple interest to calculate their interest rate?
me: "OK, so isn't the money in a savings account simple interest? "
R: "But do you calculate that""
me: "Hell naw. The miniscule amount you might get is hardly worth calculating to see if the bank made a mistake. (Dang, someone could be getting rich siphoning off the unnoticed penny or two each month.)"
Then he said: "How many people on that list know how the microwave works? Could they explain how the electricity works? Or how their water gets to them -- relatively cleanly? An engine? Their refrigerator?"
Every fan-frickin-tastic day, people use stuff that they couldn't explain.
Everyday, peple buy groceries at the 33% off sale and never once worry about it. They want to know only a few things: "How much is it and do I have that much money. Same thing with a car loan. Does it matter to them whether it's simple or compound interest? They need the car, they need a loan, they need to know if they can afford the payments. End of story.
You need to pop a bag of popcorn. Push a button. Do you know how to pop it the old fashioned way? Do you know how the gas gets to your stove? The electricity? Do you even know where gas comes from?
Well, most people don't have to worry about these things _we_ have to use every day. If you don't use it, you lose it -- exceptions only for virginity! :)
This is not to say that I don't read my son's work and think, damn, I should have spent more time with him, pushed him harder, etc. etc. Not that he's not bright -- he tests well, etc. -- it's just that he can't compose a sentence as well as I could in high school. And I"m not relying on memory -- I have my frickin high school journals and papers with which to compare.
But you know what, I was weird and I'll bet everyone on this list was too. We were geeks, nerds, brains, maybe some, like me, were hybrids jock/brain combos (My high school was weird, our brains were actually considered popular. Not as popular as the most popular and most beautiful, it's just that it was good to be a brain and it could move you out of the realm of nobodiness into the inner circles _because_ you were smart.) I graduated 15th in class or soemthing like thatwhile working full time job. I liked school. I used to skip school to study for the big exams -- class was boring and the lifeguard at the pool was cute and I could peek out at him from behind my books -- while I studied, a'course.
Compare yourself to a member of the younger generation who was as smart as you. Like, say, talk to my ex-exploiter's daughter. Dedicated, wants to learn, likes to learn, smart, hard working. She can spell, write sentences, make arguments, knows facts, and big words, you name. _She's_ the one you need to compare yourself to, I think.
Anyway, much love, snit must get back to work. Well, I guess it's time for another LBO poll about our high school geek/nerd/brain factor. :)
snit snat