Yesterday as I was typing out job tickets at work, it occurred to me how grateful I am for modern computers.

You see, it was after backspacing over several half sentences and copying/pasting several phrases that I realized the simple fact that, in a technical sense, I am a pretty substandard typist. Sure, I can produce words at approximately 50 wpm, but that's with much error correcting. Back "in the day", I would have needed a 55 gallon drum of whiteout just to make it through the month.

Still, I have to wonder if it's a lack of skill on my part or the fact that I have simply adapted to the technology I have as it was presented to me. If I were in an environment, for instance, where accuracy was an essential job skill, would I have been more thorough without the self corrections? All in all, I'm pretty content with the fact that that'ss a question I will never have to answer.

In fact, if you've SEEN me type, it would give my old typing instructor fits. I am not comfortable with my fingers resting on the keyboard, and I use a method I jokingly call "advanced hunt and peck". Two, occasionally three, finger typing...but I know precisely where the keys I need to access are located. It would serve me well if, say, I should lose 7 of my digits to frostbite in an illfated attempt to climb Mt. Everest.