James Michener was a paperboy. He related this approximate event. One older woman never tipped him. Occasionally she would tell him that a nice gift would come at Christmas. As a poor preteen his imagination ran wild. With great anticipation he delivered the Dec.25 copy. She met him at the door and handed him an envelope and closed the door. As soon as he was out of sight he opened the package. Would it be money? Nope. Four sheets of mimeograph paper. What?
Michener  goes on to portray his awakening as to the true worth of being able to copy that many handwritten items that would lead to his writing development.
Ah, Technology in my day. It does change fast. And being left behind is troublesome.
Michener again: In discussing the early boat building days the observation was made that boat builders had their own nomenclature. A language, Michener reveals to be not complicated for insiders, but designed to protect the boat builders and their industry. Hmm. Sound familiar?
Paul Newman defined the POONA LAGOONA bird as a fowl that “…flew rapidly in ever diminishing circles until it flew up it’s own rear end.”
At 75 years old, and a luddite, I fight daily to decipher the modern day “boat builders” language. They are not very helpful. They certainly don’t want to talk to you.
“Customer Service” is an oxymoron.
If wisdom comes with age, I’m about to peak. I have attempted recently to share my gathered expertise for purely altruistic reasons. Daily I suffer having doors shut in my face by technology: Try for a week to find one simple button they seemingly have hidden. My tasks could have been cut by 3/4 using Michener’s mimeograph paper.
I wonder about a couple of things. How many older people with something to offer, have silently said “chunk it” to technology? And also to the “…first ones now who will later be last”, if you only have cheaper, easier, faster on the horizon? For your own survival.