Microskills + Convenience
I have previously talked about convenience and how it may be better to practice living with inconvenience. One thing I had thought about concerning this societal "convenience at any cost" is the effect it has on our skills. Now, there are definitely skills out there that have come and gone, and for good or bad reason have been replaced due to convenience. Some of them like tanning, blacksmithing, fibre-making, etc have become more like art forms. Some early art critics might disagree since they do produce something that is useful, but nevertheless they are less common as practical work. To get back on track, if we disregard full skills - like blacksmithing - and look at subskills, microskills I am calling them. These microskills are small skills that work with other microskills to produce a skill. If we go back to blacksmithing as a fine example, in blacksmithing you do several microskills. One of these is being able to tend to the fire which you will heat your metal with. Another is working with a hammer to hammer out or in certain characteristics to your metal object. A third would be "drawing" which is to lengthen your metal object by reducing one or more of its dimensions. I could continue, but you see my point. The skill of blacksmithing, is acquired when someone becomes skilled in various microskills that aid each other. The skill that brought me to think about this topic, is driving a car. Speeding down a road in a 2-ton metal capsule with wheels is a feat. Learning how to drive a car is learning many microskills and employing them to master (some people never do) the skill of driving a car. The one I thought of was speed control. When someone first starts out, controlling your car's speed is not something everyone is confidant in right off. This is especially true when you are changing speeds, from slow 30 to 50 zones to fast 70 to 100 zones. I have noticed myself using my cruise control more and more. It got me thinking. 'Am I losing my ability to control my speed when I am driving my car?' They do say "use it or lose it." So if I am not manually controlling my speed a significant portion of my drive, then I must be losing it. The convenience of cruise control or back-up cameras invites the thought that these microskills are dying. If these microskills are dying, then our overall skill that is independent on these microskills are dying too- in a way. As we rely on our cruise control for speed adjustment, our back-up cameras for back-up parking, are we losing something?
side-note: my partner brought up the fact that people that may need these conveniences because of disabilities or other debilitating circumstances are something to take in consideration. Are they losing something? probably not if the microskills that are being lost in these conveniences were not accessible to them in the first place. Something to think about.