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I got home from work a couple days ago and my laptop wouldn't boot.  I had an RFP to work on and wanted to play some Travian and all kinds of things - all related to my laptop.  A friend of mine saw my note on Facebook that I was having bad luck with computers lately and, probably jokingly, asked "What would you have done if you were born during a time there were no computers?"

I started to think about that and tried to decide what I would do if I was born at a time before personal computers and, perhaps, before any computers.

I wanted to be an architect before I got to high school.  I went to a summer camp in middle school where we had two tracks to select.  I chose architecture and aerodynamics (I took architecture an aerodynamics - there's a good chance that Mom picked for me...).  I loved the architecture part of the camp and we went out and toured some unique buildings but I learned then and in a course in college that there was a lot of art to architecture and, while I'm creative, there's not much designer in me.  I'm almost fully functional and not too much aesthetic.

I went to A&M to study nuclear engineering.  I loved drafting and mechanical design but I only had patience for one model revision.  If I was going to enjoy what I did, it was going to be CAD - I couldn't do manual drawings.

I don't think I have the creativity for architecture...  I'd probably have started out doing some kind of  drafting or civil or mechanical engineering because when you start a design or model, it's a lot of fun - just like starting out solving a problem with code.  If I didn't know any better, I may have even gotten accustomed to revision after manual revision of designs and models.

Maybe I'm being uncreative.  Maybe I would have ended up as  a lobbyist or something.  Maybe a lawyer.  Maybe a studio backup singer!

So - most of the people who would read this are heavily involved in computers, development, social computing, product design...  If there were no computers, what would you be doing to earn a living?