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The repair shop and the moment mending stopped being worth it
Televisions, radios and appliances were mended by local businesses. The economics of repair inverted, and the law is now trying to…
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Trades, roles and daily rhythms that the economy stopped needing.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
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The travelling salesman and the territory that had to be driven
An entire commercial system rested on people who spent their working lives on the road holding relationships that no record could…
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Internal post and the paper that had to be walked across a building
Every large organisation once ran a physical network for moving documents between desks, complete with routes, timetables and staff.
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The proofreader and the last reader before the public one
Publishing once contained a formal stage where somebody read the text purely to catch what everybody else had stopped seeing.
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The night watchman and the job of being awake in an empty building
Somebody used to be paid to stay conscious in a place with nothing happening. Sensors do the watching now and nobody does the…
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The bus conductor and the fare that was collected by hand
A second member of staff on a bus did far more than take money, which is why removing the role changed the journey and not only the…
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The telegram at the door and the messenger nobody wanted to see
A message that arrived by hand, urgently, carried its meaning before the envelope was opened. No current channel signals importance…
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The tea trolley and the break that was brought to you
Somebody used to arrive at your desk at a fixed hour with something hot. The rest of the office stopped because the trolley did.
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Shorthand and the skill of writing as fast as somebody talks
For most of the last century a large workforce could capture speech at conversational speed with a pen. Recording made it optional…