Old Way vs New Way

**Specs25** · 08-19-2008, 08:59 PM

I had a new apprentice tell me that what I want to teach does not apply, any more! The new ways are the wave of the future!.........................
Are the old ways a thing of the past?
(Playing both ends against the middle......................Gotta' get my point across![chuckle])
Opinons?

**Specs25** · 08-19-2008, 09:01 PM

[quote=Specs25;257332]I had a new apprentice tell me that what I want to teach does not apply, any more! The new ways are the wave of the future!.........................
Are the old ways a thing of the past?
(Playing both ends against the middle......................Gotta' get my point across!) [chuckle])

**Fezz** · 08-19-2008, 09:11 PM

Yes.....and ......no!

;):cheers::D

**Websta** · 08-19-2008, 09:18 PM

Switch off you lab computer for a day, and let him make lenses based on the prescription alone!!!:idea:
I would not consider myself to be old, but when we were taught you had to know it all.......perhaps thats why we are know-it-all's!!!:D

Everything is done by PC today but the old way still holds some valour in my eyes. Always nice to revert back to good old fashioned pen and paper (plus a calculator ........remember those!) to surface a lens.

It will be a debate that will continue through the ages.......good luck.

**HarryChiling** · 08-19-2008, 09:44 PM

Every course on the subject teaches the "old way". I like to call it the analog way comared to the digital way. If they can't put pen to paper and make it happen then they are a slave to a computer and in my eyes they are worthless. I sat there the other day in our office and watched while a customer and one of the opticians bragged about how good they used to be at math all while lookign for a calculator to make change for a $20.00 bill. :hammer:

**Fezz** · 08-19-2008, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by HarryChiling

Every course on the subject teaches the "old way". I like to call it the analog way comared to the digital way. If they can't put pen to paper and make it happen then they are a slave to a computer and in my eyes they are worthless. I sat there the other day in our office and watched while a customer and one of the opticians bragged about how good they used to be at math all while lookign for a calculator to make change for a $20.00 bill. :hammer:

Damn you Harry!!!

I asked you not to tell Optiboard about this!

Sheeesh! Sorry...we all can't be Human Abacus's!!

;):cheers::D

**chip anderson** · 08-19-2008, 10:26 PM

Tell the boy it is now possible to make a baby with a test tube and a petri-dish. Tell him to try the new way and the old way and report back to you.

Chip

**Jacqui** · 08-19-2008, 10:35 PM

I use both ways, just depends on the job and how I feel. Sometimes I even use both on the same job just to compare the two.

**Uncle Double** · 08-19-2008, 10:49 PM

oops!

**MarcE** · 08-20-2008, 02:12 AM

Originally Posted by Websta

the old way still holds some valour in my eyes.

Freudian slip? Value? Valor? Velour?

In business I look for Value-added, not Valor. Velour? That's for sheets only.

**Chris Ryser** · 08-20-2008, 03:24 AM

Give your apprentice a glass lens and a pair of chipping pliers and let him make a lens shape with perfect measuremenrts nicely finished and bevelled before allowing him to use the auromatic edger.

Maybe then he will see tha value of the old ways.

**For-Life** · 08-20-2008, 06:20 AM

The new way is faster, quicker, easier, but thoughtless.

The old way is mechanical, methodical, and based on technique.

Personally, I do not think you can appreciate the task at hand without understanding the old way. It was like the first time that I edged, I learned so much more about lenses that I previously did not know.

**Barry Santini** · 08-20-2008, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by HarryChiling

I sat there the other day in our office and watched while a customer and one of the opticians bragged about how good they used to be at math all while lookign for a calculator to make change for a $20.00 bill. :hammer:

Errr...that would be me....

Barry

**EyeFitWell** · 08-20-2008, 11:58 AM

As a relative newbie, I'm very happy to learn the old way, even if it (theoretically) will never be used. The benefits are multi-fold. One, I understand what the equipment does to I can better diagnose and fix any problems. Second, I can pass the pop quiz engineers give me to see if I know my stuff. Third, I feel more like a "real" optician knowing some stuff that your average sales person wouldn't. Fourth, sometimes it really does come in handy when understanding a problem someone's having with the optics if your understanding goes beyond "the computer told me to pull a 5BC". And fifth, when I (hopefully) get into R&D of the lenses of the future, I have a good understanding of where we've come from.

**Ginster** · 08-20-2008, 02:17 PM

You need to know the old to take the ABO, and I'm sure in a licienced state, to take that test as well. Turn off the power box in the optical and watch them go crazy, like mice in a maze.:hammer::hammer:

:cheers::cheers:

**chip anderson** · 08-20-2008, 02:45 PM

Concider this. You go to school where everything is high tech. Especially medical school. Later you find your are out working in the boondocks on a low budget and you don't have a clue how to do anything without all those high tech toys.

Or you work in a high tech lab, open your own on older used equipement and find that you don't know how to use or maintain it.

**scriptfiller** · 08-20-2008, 08:03 PM

When I started in the industry I learned the "long" way, the "short" way fits the high throughput mentality and the gotta have it yesterday attitude of society. I think I might try it the "long" way tomorrow just for grins.

Gotta optical protractor and lense clock? :-)

**Kevin Howtopat** · 08-20-2008, 08:35 PM

yeah, watch everybody stand around when the computers go down and I am still plugging along with my lensometer

**Websta** · 08-20-2008, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by MarcE

Freudian slip? Value? Valor? Velour?

In business I look for Value-added, not Valor. Velour? That's for sheets only.

Sorry, forgot that you guys (in the states) drop the vowel. Yes, Valor. There is something "real" in watching someone working through a problem the old way. You kinda have to give respect to the (older) "old timers" when they show you how to do things.
You think back to the golf days of yesteryear when the players had to have real skill as there was no "advantages" to having certain balls or clubs. Sure the guys of today must have talent, but it is surely aided by the equipment they use.
But progress is progress and one day the technicians will be asking "what is a lens clock?" Gee, I remember making curves on glass lenses with some emory, a splash of water, a paintbrush and heaps of elbow grease!