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I don't think the point was that Wikipedia exclusively documents obscure knowledge that used to be common. Wikipedia obviously contains information about all th

• andyjohnson0 8y ago
  > but shorthand used to be very common and it's funny to see it now observed as a curiosity on HN and referenced on Wikipedia That was indeed my point.
• slantyyz 8y ago
  >> shorthand used to be very common and it's funny to see it now observed as a curiosity on HN Seeing this Wikipedia link made me feel old. Shorthand was indeed very common, my older sister took Pitman shorthand courses in high school, but by the time I hit high school in the mid 80s, it was no longer offered at my school. By the time the 90s rolled around, it was probably a dying craft. Heck, in the early 90s, I had a summer job using a dedicated Wang word processing machine, typing out paper memos using a dictaphone (remember those?). As I get older, I find it interesting when younger generations find novelty in things from my younger days, like hollerith cards, walkmen, vinyl, and film cameras.
  • empath75 8y ago
    When I was in high school in the 90s, I took a typing class on actual typewriters, and it was definitely taught with the idea of training people to be secretaries and not software developers.