During my 29 year career which ended in 2019, the only thing I was ever asked to do was talk and type (well, in the first three years it was talk and write because there wasn’t a PC on every desk then).
No-one ever asked me to put something in a box, drive somewhere, cook a meal, dig a hole, climb a ladder, cut hair, wire a plug or any of the other thousands of ways you can exchange labour for money.
Instead, every brief essentially had the same pattern:
- Type some stuff into a computer
- Talk about what you typed
- Type stuff to other people who then type stuff back at you.
Most of my work colleagues had the same brief, so we were able to create a self sustaining talking and typing network, which would eventually lead to someone, somewhere putting something in a box, climbing a ladder or whatever.
The scale of talking and typing jobs are completely non-linear. If you cut hair for a living, there’s a reasonably linear relationship between how many heads sit in your chair, how long each sits for and how much money you make.
Step one above is the essential starting point. You type some stuff into a document, presentation, spreadsheet whatever, then you send it to others and start typing and talking about it. Simultaneously, you are receiving some typed stuff from others which you can then type back a reply to.
It usually doesn’t take long to type the original thing. Most of the time after that is about talking and typing the same content over and over until the next project comes along.
Of course, every job involves some talking and typing. If you drive for a living, you need to also do a small amount of talking and typing in between the driving in order to find out where to go.
In my experience, jobs which are exclusively talking and typing are very well paid, compared to others in the workplace who also have to undertake other activities.
In the first 15 years or so of my career, I spent a good deal of time reading and learning so that the stuff I typed would be noticed and appreciated by those I was talking and typing to.
But then, around 2005, I discovered that talking and typing itself was all you really needed – other people were prepared to do the reading and learning. What did surprise me though, was that since I stopped reading and learning, the amount of money I could earn went up significantly.
Anyway, since stopping work, I still talk and type a lot. But, more importantly, I do other things as well. It’s still work, but I don’t get paid and can allocate time how I choose.
Looking back, I’m rather bemused and amazed at all this. Somehow this talking and typing was sufficiently valuable to sustain not only my lifestyle over the years, but also for (hopefully) decades yet to come.
And yet, even if I think carefully, I find it hard to recall exactly what it was I talked and typed about.