Take typing (I don't count two-fingered typing like I do as "word processing"). There used to be a UK national competition for data entry operators in the IT industry which was run by either "Computing" or "Computer Weekly" each year. The top data entry operators would come in at around 25,000 key depressions per hour - that's about seven key depressions per second. Can you manage to type at a rate of seven key depressions per minute? Half of that? So why are we typing ourselves and not giving the work to other people who can type faster, probably more accurately, and who might well cost less?

One answer is - because those people aren't there any more. The organisation is leaner - but is it more efficient?

Today you'll find a manager entering numbers into one of the many columns of an analysis sheet - it's called a "spreadsheet" today - and that was a function that a low-cost, junior clerk would have carried out. You'll find managers creating PowerPoint presentations themselves, whereas a low-cost clerical assistant would have done that with a pack of Letraset, a Kroy labelling machine or even with an IBM typewriter with a special golf-ball for larger characters.

What we do is obviously prettier. We can make changes to text, insert pictures, change colours and even put in sounds. But are we really more operationally efficient? Or do we have a well-developed "do-it-yourself" environment where everyone is a "jack-of-all-trades but a master of none"?