I just happened to wander into the lounge while W was watching an episode of the BBC genealogy series “Who Do You Think You Are?” - the featured celebrity was poring over census records from the 1860s, looking at the careers of her ancestors.
It got me thinking.
How will our careers be seen in years to come? Although some careers have sustained the generations, mine has not. Computers are new - although not perhaps as new as you might think.
60 years ago I might have found myself at Bletchley Park (of course I wouldn’t have - I can’t do the Times Crossword)
40 years ago I might have found myself hacking the first batch processing systems at a university - treading the same path as Donald Knuth, and latterly Richard Stallman.
20 years ago you actually would have found me writing software for the first 16 bit home computers, wrestling with binary at college, and writing software for fun.
Today you find me designing and developing all manner of solutions for huge clients that I am never allowed to talk about in the public arena. Working at the coal face of history, and witnessing the communications revolution going on around me.
I wonder what my grandchildren and great grandchildren will think when looking back. While a lot of the minutiae of my life may remain through the archives of blog posts such as this, my professional life will essentially be erased from history unless I do something about it.
I haven’t a clue how I might leave such a record - a record of information that may only become public once people or companies are no more.
Why am I even thinking about this?
Given our children’s start in life, we are perhaps more aware than most of the traces we leave behind - so that our children (when they are older) may know us as we once were, and their children may also be able to look back.
Is it building a legacy? Perhaps. I prefer to think of it as sharing that which has been with those who are yet to come.