To be fair, I agree that what is taught in schools is the result of what parents/employers/government asked for. Nobody is going to hire me for my blacksmithing skills, but I do have to know MS Word. The basic problems with our educational system (poor focus, stigmatizing the trades, everyone is going to be a manager, etc) are another whole discussion.<br>
<br>I think the aging of the "computer hacker" population and the general decline in knowledge of how things work has to do with the fact that we have an incredible array of ready-to-use products around us that don't require any fiddling. Computers used to demand a higher level of competence from users because they were fragile and difficult to use.<br>
<br>Combined with our society as a whole becoming more risk-averse and specialized, and I think it's inevitable that "hands on" work is less popular than it once was.<br><br>Arclight<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Yves Quemener <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:quemener.yves@free.fr">quemener.yves@free.fr</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hank The Curmudgeon a écrit :<br>
<div class="im">> Go and find the "Popular Mechanics" issues from around 1930 (Google<br>
> "page" 31 at the bottom of the main search page, linked below) and<br>
> move forward. Grab a random issue and check the index. I am<br>
> specifically referring to the project pages. Though the ads and<br>
> feature articles are fun toothey are not the subject of my mini rant.<br>
> Look at the stuff that we built in our home shops. What the hell<br>
> happened to us? Where did we, as a nation of inventors, dreamers,<br>
> builders and makers, go astray???<br>
</div>It looks like hackaday to me. I don't think any spirit went astray.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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