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#WritersCoffeeClub 5/17. If you work exclusively digitally, could you work by hand? (_Or vice-versa!_)
Definitely not.
While I can use a manual typewriter (I learned on one, before home computers were a thing, though I hate it!) having to go back to pen and paper would end my writing career.
Holding a pen is physically painful and I can barely write by hand these days.
Might as well try and go back to a chisel and cuneiform.
@cstross The question IMHO is not well stated and is subject of interpretation.
Yes, you can work by hand, but very probably not the same kind of work.
I'm a SW developer. Can I do my job by hand without using computer/network/etc. ?
Of course not.
But I can bake bread 😊 Still "work".
@cstross
In that world, you would have a dictaphone or a shorthand secretary.
@KimSJ I can't work via dictation, to a machine or a person: every phrase is reworded on-screen iteratively before I decide it's ready.
@cstross
you’d have to do that in your head. A different way of working (how we used to do it!), but… impossible? 🤷♂️
@KimSJ Also note that the entire publishing industry runs on computers these days. Can't actually work without it—not just editing and typesetting but printing and physical book distribution and sales (think Amazon). If you take away computers from our current world literacy literally dies.
@cstross
Fair point. I guess that slightly depends on whether you interpret ‘work’ in the original question as ‘producing a work’ or ‘earning a living from what you do’. As you point out, the second interpretation makes digital essential.
@cstross Charlie, here's some ochre and a cave wall. Do your best by dodgy firelight.
@cstross Sketching ideas, making quick notes of thoughts work better by hand. I also keep it better in memory. I find it more easy to find back my analog files, whereas my digital ones are much harder, divided over old dvds, harddrives and obsolete hardware.
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