Are YOU Becoming Obsolete?

... and not realizing it?

Now's a good time to think about your skills and how well you're positioned for the Brave New World barreling down on us.

Here's a good place to start.

Robert Scoble started a list of obsolete skills a few weeks ago here and that later led to a giant and growing wiki .

Scoble's list was pretty straight forward:

1. Dialing a rotary phone.
2. Putting a needle on a vinyl record.
3. Changing tracks on an eight-track tape.
4. Shorthand.
5. Using a slide rule.
6. Using carbon paper to make copies.
7. Developing film/photos.
8. Changing the ball or ribbon on your Selectric Typewriter.
9. Getting off the couch to change channels on your TV set.
10. Adjusting the rabbit ears on your TV set.
11. Changing the gas mixture on your car’s carburetor.

But the longer list--and you can argue about some of these all night--is much more wide ranging.  Some of these were blown out by new technology ("adjusting rabbit ears on a TV", "dialing a rotary phone") others a reflection of changing lifestyles and mass marketing. Who has their milk delivered to their homes anymore? Is "knowing your neighbors" now dead? Are "good manners" history?

Some just faded away quietly. Remember carbon paper or when you had to actually focus a camera or format a floppy? What about percolating coffee?

Some are arguable. Is "common sense" really dead (maybe). Have we truly lost the ability to think--and "drive" (driving a car is listed as a lost skill). What about "read a map?"

So what skills will be obsolete in five or ten years?

Will "writing" be dead? Already "texting" "IM-ing" and "twittering" has replaced true prose in most of the blogosphere--so what's next?