Back in '08 on the Columbia River, I thought those new GPS dredge guidance systems were just expensive toys. Took a job with a crew using one and they cut a 500-foot trench in half the time.

4 comments

4 Comments

Oh man, that GPS story hits close to home. I was the same way with digital pattern cutting software in the garment industry back in 2010. I remember standing in a factory and telling the owner it was just a fancy toy that would never beat a good pair of scissors and a steady hand. Then I watched a new girl lay out a complex dress pattern on screen, move pieces around to save fabric, and cut the whole thing in about fifteen minutes. It took me almost an hour to do the same thing by hand and I wasted way more material. I still use scissors sometimes for small projects, but I'd be lying if I said that software didn't make me look at my whole workflow completely different.

fisher.jessica2mo ago

Wow, it's wild how often new tech seems silly until it just works.

hunt.jennifer2mo ago

Totally, @fisher.jessica. I still remember mocking touchscreens.

skyler2172mo ago

Back in 2007, my dad swore he'd never give up his Blackberry keyboard. He said typing on glass was for kids. Now he sends me novels by text using just his thumbs. The real shift wasn't the tech itself, but how it changed what we were willing to do. We used to plan everything in advance on a computer, but now we just do stuff on the fly because the phone is always there. It made being spontaneous the normal way to operate.