This isn’t explicitly about writing, but I think this is a fascinating site. Obsolete Skills is compiling a wiki-style, master list of skills that used to be important in our society but no longer are.

A ’skill’ can be actual job skills (programming in BASIC), everyday actions people no longer perform (dialing a rotary phone), or skills that just aren’t useful anymore (like doing hexadecimal conversions in your head – which was questionably useful to begin with). Sadly, at one point I did all three of these. One caveat – some things in the list really are still used and remain useful – like understanding the Dewey Decimal System – so clearly this is a work in progress.

If you need a bit of writing inspiration, go there, pick a random ‘obsolete skill’, and write about a character who has that skill. Great cure for writer’s block!