But it's progress and it's a really good thing.
it's actually not, although it depends on what one considers a good thing. A more reliable car, sure.
The company I work for is hiring a ton of new, young employees. It has no choice-- the veteran workforce is retiring. This transition is occurring throughout the company including our own department. The young employees are whizzes with mobile communications and computer-based skills. But their lack of a rounded exposure to reality, largely the fault of their education, and their attitude of "I'm owed" is reflected in their inability to see the big picture, their inability to think and act independently, and most damaging, their inability to see the logical path to solving complicated problems. By which I mean production problems, logistics problems, tactical problems, and strategic problems.
The result is that every undertaking takes more time, costs far more than it should, and the end rsult is less effective and comes out with far more problems that have to be fixed. It's a growing dilemma the company I work for is increasingly struggling with and there's no solution.
Our customers are increasingly pissed at us for missing delivery dates and delivering products with defects that take time and cost the customers a ton in schedule disruptions and lost revenue. And we are paying out more and more money every year in penalties and warranty claims.
In my own department our costs are skyrocketing, our productivity is dropping, and our customers are less and less satisfied. The work itself hasn't changed in all the years I've been there. The only thing that's changing is the age of the employees and their attitude, skill, understanding, and approach to the work.
Working with these people, and I'm talking people in their later 20s and early to mid 30s, is in many ways like working with children. They are great at focusing in on details but their big-picture skills are incredibly bad. And what's particularly detrimental is their inability to quickly grasp a complex concept. It has to be explained over and over until you're practically reduced to See Spot Run dialogue.
This chacteristic is becoming prevelant all across the company and as a result the company's performance is suffering.
I see this reflected in boating, with the younger boaters I talk to increasingly baffled by the realities boaters face. Like navigation.
What Jeffery describes is actually a death spiral. As boating (or any activity, actually) becomes more and more dependent on automation, the participants become less and less self-reliant. Not just in changing oil but in all aspects of life, particularly decision making.
This is probably the most damaging problem and is in my opinion and experience the thing most responsible for dragging the company I work for down. Knowing how to do something is sometimes not enough. Being able to make the right decision as to
what to do is often more important. This is as true for the boater as it is for the airplane company.
Jefferey takes a very short-term view of this. Sure, not having to know how to change an engines oil is fine. Not really understanding how navigation works but knowing which buttons to push to make it happen is fine, too.
But what's really happening here? People are gradually becoming dumbed down. And this basic approach to life will, in my opinion, eventually lead to Major Problems. Not so much in driving a boat around. But in companies like the one I work for and in international relationships and even in the path our own country takes. You want a glimpse into the future, read the stuff the posters on OTDE are railing about. Much of what they are reacting to is the result of this "dumbing down," which is a worldwide phenomenon, not just a boating one.
Which is why people who still have a degree of self-reliance and the ability to see and understand the big picture and who can solve problems on their own, and most important have the breadth of knowledge to make good decisions quickly, tend to react, sometimes strongly, when they see notions like Jeffrey's expressed which simply magnify and hasten the dumbing down process and the consequences it brings.
PS--Earlier I said there is no solution. Actually there is one, and one I expect Jeffery will heartily approve of. And that is to remove people entirely from every active phase of a process, be it boating or building airplanes. And that is exactly what's happening. The company I work for is introducing full automation as fast as it can and getting rid of people as fast as this will allow. The food industry, particularly the fast food industry, is doing exactly the same thing.
Perhaps the ultimate realization of Jeffrey's vision will be boaters who never leave their homes. Instead, they will sit comfortably in their living rooms-- or perhaps a Boating Room-- and operate their boat by total remote control and experience boating vicariously with 3D glasses and surround sound.
At which point it will no longer matter what kind of anchor one has because if it drags in a storm there will be no consequences, right?