Gear Shift

RIP the stick shift:

There is something masterful and deliberate about changing gear yourself. It focuses you, the smooth growl of change reminding you that despite this age of button-pushing and screen-swiping you are not playing video games but in personal control of a big, heavy, dangerous machine: you’re a watchful human responsibly attuned to its sounds and strains. Driving manual was one of the last necessary skills of physicality for the overeducated majority who don’t have a craft requiring routine dexterity. As AI and shrinking attention spans erode us mentally, so changes like this reduce the palpable necessity for co-ordination and let relevant brain cells atrophy.

Shfting gears has become another lost art...