Everything Changes... Almost

QWERTY. That is a word that you will find in some dictionaries, but not with the definition that should be there. It should say "something that is outdated, outmoded, and holds us back for no sensible reason." Instead, the definition given is "a standard typewriter or computer keyboard."

I just finished Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, which I will write more on later, but he has this to say about the keyboard:

"This book, like probably every other typed document you have ever read, was typed with a QWERTY keyboard, named for the left-most six letters in its upper row. Unbelievable as it may sound now, that keyboard layout was designed in 1873 as a feat of anti-engineering. It employs a whole series of perverse tricks designed to force typists to type as slowly as possible, such as scattering the commonest letters over all the keyboard rows and concentrating them on the left side (where right-handed people have to use their weaker hand). The reason behind all of those seemingly counterproductive features is that the typewriters of 1873 jammed if adjacent keys were struck in quick succession, so that manufacturers had to slow down typists. When improvements in typewriters eliminated the problem of jamming, trails in 1932 with an efficiently laid-out keyboard showed that it would let us double our typing speed and reduce our typing effort by 95 percent. But QWERTY keyboards were solidly entrenched by then. The vested interests of thousands of QWERTY typists, typing teachers, typewriter and computer salespeople, and manufacturers have crushed all moves toward keyboard efficiency for over 60-years." (page 248, emphasis mine)

I knew about needing to layout the keyboard the way it was in order to keep the typewriter from jamming, but I did not know how long ago it was done. I also did not know that changes to allow us to type faster, more efficiently and with less energy expended were recommended as long ago as they were either. The long and short of this that we are using a keyboard that is obsolete and that should have been replaced a long time ago simply because people are too accustomed to it and don't want to make a change. Is that reasonable?

What if the same thing was true of cars (the first model A was sold on this date in 1903), planes, television or even card catalogs, and no improvements were allowed simply because everyone was comfortable with what already existed and didn't want anything new? Now I loved looking in card catalogs because I often found things that I wouldn't have otherwise found, but the same is true to a much greater extent searching for things on-line. So why are we continuing to use this keyboard? (The same might also be said for changing to metric.)

This leads me back to my earlier post, and asking the question, what in the church are we holding onto even though it is obsolete? Do you know why most worship services are held when they are? Because farmers needed time to milk the cows and do other chores around the farm before they could get to church. So worship couldn't be at 8 or even some places at 9, because that would not give them enough time. There are all sorts of these things in which the purpose and necessity have long since passed, but we can't change because change is scary, no one wants to do it differently or learn something different, and after all, "that's the way we've always done it." Those are the seven most deadly words.