The ever excellent Tim Harford has written a very interesting article on why computers and the internet are not improving technology; (find it here: https://timharford.com/2021/04/technology-has-turned-back-the-clock-on-productivity/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter)
It rings the bell of truth for me because of personal experience. When working at the BBC I used to make a huge number of radio packages for programmes like Today, WATO and the wonderful World Tonight. When I started I would find the stories, visit firms, factories and offices, gather audio, interview experts and then edit the audio and write my script. Then a Studio Manager ( SM), an expert in radio technology and editing, would record my voice, play in the clips and mix a five minute package; sometimes in real time, sometimes in 10 or 15 minutes and normally well within an hour.
Then in a cost cutting move the BBC stopped SMs doing that and made me do it on my computer with an audio editing programme. They had to buy every reporter the programme, train them all and then it took reporters (or at least me) several hours to edit the package less well than an SM could.
The savings on SM’s wages were more than wiped out by paying me more to do the job badly. The same is now true of NHS consultants who write their own letters or managers who spend all day replying to emails. They have spent years training to be good at one thing and it isn’t typing. .
This is de-specialisation, our computers have ended the careers of typists, telex operators, messangers, SMs and thousands of other. But left highly paid specialists spending the majority of their time doing jobs they are not specialists in.
Bring back the typing pool is a strange rallying call but it could be the way ahead.
https://jonty.substack.com/
well i certainly didn't want to compare them to typists, they were always the best people in the room
On the other hand, working as a typist in a typing pool, typing all day, over and over, not your own creation but someone else's work, is truly monotonous and soul and health destroying. Also it's difficult to recruit and retain staff to do this, who are underpaid and undervalued. Unfortunately, the NHS has brought back audio-typing pools and some of the dictations and audio recordings are abysmal and difficult and time consuming to transcribe.