Post AZABST6sApW6yl18b2 by joyographic@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by joyographic@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #AZ8QirmZJsT583sTQ0 by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T21:22:31Z
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For a long while, it seemed like the "paperless office" would never arriveThroughout the 80s and 90s, as companies adopted computers, the amount of office paper *exploded*Why? Because people were communicating more and more -- but wanted paper copies of those reports, emails, memosPaper was superior to screens in nearly every wayBut! That may finally have changedMy essay: https://medium.com/@clivethompson/the-paperless-office-is-finally-arriving-92ce060e6070A "friend" link in case you don't subscribe to Medium: https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-paperless-office-is-finally-arriving-92ce060e6070?sk=5530b921b8aaa01ae899a0a01f6f0c87
(DIR) Post #AZ8S2ZIFs2LfX4enVQ by zoe@social.animeprincess.net
2023-08-26T21:37:00Z
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@clive Paper was the only thing keeping my handwriting somewhat legible. I'll have to start keeping a diary or something just so that my writing skills don't atrophy into nonexistence!
(DIR) Post #AZ8SVIwDl5YZCm3MZ6 by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T21:42:32Z
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@zoe My handwriting is *so* terrible, for precisely the same reason
(DIR) Post #AZ8SmCVWv6uSBTcqSe by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-08-26T21:45:28Z
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@clive The next generation is going to regard the skill of handwriting in much the same way that we regard the skill of long division.
(DIR) Post #AZ8Vv85szzgcxqa1Ro by carlmjohnson@mastodon.social
2023-08-26T22:20:47Z
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@clive https://youtu.be/_IZw2CoYztk
(DIR) Post #AZ8e5UQbcC1elHirK4 by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T23:52:19Z
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@carlmjohnson 🤘🏻
(DIR) Post #AZ8eBioN3EOF6loHxI by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T23:52:37Z
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@maximum_mew yep Yep – I’m sure that has contributed in the last couple years for sure !
(DIR) Post #AZ8eIg2Rl8k4XEi7EW by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T23:53:26Z
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@maximum_mew Yes, I know several authors who are printing up all their correspondence for decades because some university wants their materials, and they need them all to be in paper!
(DIR) Post #AZ8eNrDBe348dVCj2W by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-26T23:53:41Z
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@tokensane That sounds right
(DIR) Post #AZ8eTO7MjDDK8m7Q5Q by matthewburton@mstdn.social
2023-08-26T23:54:08Z
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@clive I’ll present, without evidence, two other possible contributing factors:- the decline of corporate writing. There are far fewer reports to print now than their were decades ago. Nobody writes anymore! They just make slide decks, which make no sense when printed. - the disappearance of assistants. Printers suck. No one wants to deal with them. It was far easier to get printed materiel when you could have someone do it for you. Now everyone has to do it themselves, and it sucks.
(DIR) Post #AZ8go5i4YzzH2THuHw by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-08-26T23:54:16Z
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@clive I recently got rid of my two drawer filing cabinet. I discovered that once I threw out things like manuals for toasters I no longer have, there was so little important paper left that it would all fit into a document box with room to spare.It helps that a few years back I bought a good document scanner. When I get some paper, I generally scan it to OCRed PDF, drop the file into a searchable database, and shred the paper.For last year's taxes, I found two paper documents I had been mailed (For taxes I keep originals for a few years after scanning). Everything else was PDF to start with.Long books were the first thing I abandoned paper for. I'd much rather read on an e-ink screen of a waterproof reader than have to deal with an 1,100 page paperback.
(DIR) Post #AZ8jBOGXwFdb9reNrU by RedStateExile@mastodon.social
2023-08-27T00:49:21Z
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@clive my wife and I owned a sales rep company in the mid 80’s that covered 6 states. The only paper was incoming mail, our output was electronic. What we could not do any other way was accomplished with an early fax modem.
(DIR) Post #AZ8peT2Vruws5PKntQ by michaelslade@mastodon.cloud
2023-08-27T02:01:17Z
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@clive I agree with your conclusions. Might add that an iPad even gives you paper sized presentation with the easy on/off of a phone.
(DIR) Post #AZ95Lfhu93qF8ekqQK by BramMeehan@ohai.social
2023-08-27T04:57:46Z
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@clive In the year of our lord two thousand two hundred twenty-three, I have again submitted a PDF to a client — all a decade+ younger than me — requesting Acrobat’s commenting tools for revisions. Again, I have received a scan of hand-annotated pages.I appreciate proofreading on hard copy. Especially since the final will be a print product. And getting proper edits with proper marks (which… they kind of mostly got). We assume people know how to use the tools they have.
(DIR) Post #AZ9CQSlmNCfy8mnZxo by jdblair@hachyderm.io
2023-08-27T06:17:04Z
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@clive The biggest reason I print anything anymore, either at work or at home, is because I have to sign a form or contract. Then I scan the signed paper, shred the paper, and email the signed image.In other words, I use a printer because not everything is converted to DocuSign.
(DIR) Post #AZ9jmVKooVb0xFJ1hQ by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-27T12:30:48Z
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@michaelslade Yep, good point on the ipad! Even closer to a replacement for paper than a phone ...
(DIR) Post #AZ9k4pOexjeyO7q8P2 by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-27T12:32:54Z
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@matthewburton Aha, those are two good drivers also!Both are trends that have slowly but persistently metastasized across the corporate world ...
(DIR) Post #AZ9plt79W2JK8o0FCy by mzagaja@mastodon.social
2023-08-27T13:37:57Z
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@clive Some other ideas:- Rise of Google Docs made collaborative comments/edits easier on computer. Suddenly paper markups duplicative or even rude.- More "hot desking" and hybrid means you don't have a place to keep your paper docs anymore.- Push towards retina/4K displays huge ergonomic improvement
(DIR) Post #AZAAFdVa6KH5VitLuq by matunos@mastodon.social
2023-08-27T17:27:21Z
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@clive @anildash i remember printing out code reviews back in the day. hard to imagine now (tbf online code review tools were in their infancy)
(DIR) Post #AZAAedTNN1UedjmTfk by monsoonrains@mastodon.social
2023-08-27T17:31:52Z
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@clive People really loved them that pappy for a long time.
(DIR) Post #AZAAkrbXk3NgCqZRzc by peterme@sfba.social
2023-08-27T17:32:11Z
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@clive Additional thoughts:I suspect the rise of very large displays is a factor. I used to print in order to read across multiple pages/documents for editing, etc. Now, I can comfortably fit 2, 3, even 4 'pages' across my displays (which, also, are 'retina' displays, so have resolution akin to paper). Printing used to be a time-saver for doing complicated work. Now it takes more time.(Oh, I also wonder about the rise of 'infinite canvas' tools like Miro / Mural for not needing to print-out and tape-up multi-page documents for editing, etc.)
(DIR) Post #AZAB7GJqXBXpEByQka by tafkak@mastodon.social
2023-08-27T17:37:02Z
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@clive @anildash our filing cabinets at work are full to the point of concern about the floor collapsing… but I, as a major paper pusher, have not touched a single sheet of paper for work in 3 1/2 years, since the day we went home at the start of the pandemic. No need for paper clips, staples, sleeves, envelopes, any of it, at all, overnight. And the need to move physical paper was about the only reason to be in the office. The world has changed but management is terrified of irrelevance.
(DIR) Post #AZABST6sApW6yl18b2 by joyographic@mstdn.social
2023-08-27T17:40:50Z
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@clive It happened recently that I wanted to write something on a piece of paper, and I couldn't find one! I had simply stopped using paper, and hadn't noticed...Printer ink extortion has no doubt contributed to the decline in paper use.
(DIR) Post #AZABnOidh5NhRTf720 by ducky@mstdn.ca
2023-08-27T17:44:42Z
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@clive I think an even bigger driver of the move away from paper was much MUCH better computer monitors: bigger, higher resolution, and brighter. CRTs were really really crappy.Also: the drop in office paper use happened much earlier and was more dramatic than the total-paper-consumption line suggests, but the drop in office use was masked by the rise in paper use in boxes (due to Amazon).
(DIR) Post #AZACvdRsuedzOeJj2e by mattly@hachyderm.io
2023-08-27T17:57:19Z
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@clive You lost me with “Continue Reading in the App”
(DIR) Post #AZADiqEEBdZRDoOOq8 by stilescrisis@mastodon.gamedev.place
2023-08-27T18:06:16Z
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@clive @anildash Digital contracts have to have put a dent in things. When I bought a home in the early 00s, there were at least a thousand printed contract pages (with dozens of required signatures). Not to mention printed inspection reports. Nowadays, all those contracts and reports come in as PDFs or on a platform like DocuSign.
(DIR) Post #AZBfm81TTZxb9Yk7ZQ by steve@mastodon.me.uk
2023-08-28T10:55:19Z
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@clive Is it possible that there’s a generational thing here as well.I entered the workforce in 2006 and would consider myself part of the millennial digital native generation. The idea of printing out reports is very alien.
(DIR) Post #AZCBfU7k6TN8CkYCvo by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-28T16:52:40Z
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@steve Yep, this seems true!
(DIR) Post #AZD5ZIFavjaZ4kqczY by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:19:01Z
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@tim @mzagaja Yes! A very good point Even post it notes become useless if you have no regular wall or cubicle upon which to stick them
(DIR) Post #AZD5fgbbIAUILgBnGq by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:19:52Z
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@anildash @stilescrisis Good point! I haven’t signed a paper contract in some years — and thus have no stack of them in my filing cabinet any more
(DIR) Post #AZD5pzPIF9KFYYLUIq by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:22:07Z
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@drwho Yep good point Also some of this regulations are good — paper archives are *much* more reliable than digital ones!
(DIR) Post #AZD64SOFHWT9V3kohk by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:23:16Z
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@ducky Yep good point! When you see screen from the early 00s they’re so squinty
(DIR) Post #AZD6AmKw28jz6JDhy4 by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:24:34Z
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@tafkak @anildash That’s really interesting to hear!
(DIR) Post #AZD6G31PQUQ4IRbEQq by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:23:42Z
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@joyographic Very good point — the ink cartel is outta control
(DIR) Post #AZD6NJSahtXpJ3mIHA by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:25:56Z
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@peterme Excellent points! A few other folks on this thread noted the superior screensBut I like your second point too — printing is often a *hassle*
(DIR) Post #AZD6SYX65vG5V9NyvA by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:26:08Z
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@monsoonrains They did
(DIR) Post #AZD6XtTJffuNtHA8Tw by clive@saturation.social
2023-08-29T03:26:35Z
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@matunos @anildash Yes! It was a bit thing back in the day — code reviews on hard copy
(DIR) Post #AZD9vsxFXsVx6CIN84 by joyographic@mstdn.social
2023-08-29T04:08:00Z
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@clive This annoying practice has probably saved thousands of square miles of forest.