atw: Re: The decreasingly meaningful authoring experience
- From: warren.lewington@xxxxxxxxx
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:22:20 +1100
Hmm. I'll buy in to the automotive argument and make some observations.
Brian is also an automotive person too. So for us at least this is a
subject of some knowledge.
I have seen it all as an automotive tradesman. I learnt to rewind
armatures, set generator regulators and repair all manner of things. I saw
the revolution of electronics and computing evolve from diodes in a box
to, wow! Now I left the trade because I was bored intellectually and could
not earn a living that I was capable of. I earn twice now what I could
earn as a tradesman who has worked in every field automotive or transport.
I have pioneered ways done things there are no text books on, without
exaggeration.
Intellectually bored.
Technology has taken a trade that had a high degree of craftsmanship and
pride and supplanted the craft with a paradigm driven by component
replacement, not repair. Now that technology is not to be sneezed at, the
superb QUALITY of motor vehicles, and contrary to common belief, their
relative longevity to their predecessors, is extraordinary. Comfort,
safety and performance as well as environmentally more efficient resource
use has all been for the good.
I could wax lyrical about a recent experience with a racing engine but I
won't, save to say that modern production quality for dime a dozen parts,
first made over forty years ago, GOBSMACKED ME. We don't have to machine
and weight pistons for performance engines because out of the box, they
are near as damnit! In many cases even better than we could do it
manually, saving us hours of painstaking labour in machining work! And
they are cheaper now than they were then, over the counter, before the
added labour of balancing and matching to size! This example alone, rests
my case, while human craft and labour is removed, the quality has
improved, at reduced real cost. Would you like more?
However, from a personal and unsentimental point of view, I have seen the
quality of the trade fall. We don't get the same quality of young men and
women we used to because they are not needed, instead, they go and do
degrees. What we do get, is young people who previously were the future
storemen and packers, the labourers. People who can't spell, barely read,
and have very little general education or life experience. Many have never
been to places like museums etc. The same or more technical service and
repair work is being achieved on vehicles with far more computing power
than the moonshots; and how? Well, that's because the diagnostic computer
systems take the mental dexterity out of the equation.
Previously if you needed a diagnostic repair performed on the electrical
system or an electronic component, you would call someone like me. I would
have a look, test the system with a variety of tools and other equipment
like hammers ;-), and make a conclusion. Now, any bone head can take the
scan tool down, follow "simple" foolproof (literally) instructions, wait a
few minutes, press a few buttons and... This is what's wrong - "it". Take
"it" out, buy a new one and fit that.
So I guess in Steve's case, we could improve the lot of the Chinese
harvesters by employing them in a dealer workshop! Don't laugh. Why do you
have to speak to a dealership 'service advisor' rather than the mechanic
on the floor? Most of the mechanics can't speak Eng-rish, let alone
Australian!
Warren Lewington
Technical Writer
Metso Minerals
Arndell Park, Sydney.
NSW, Australia.
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