There was a time when if you had a code question in the field, you either had to drive back to the office, dig through a binder full of sticky notes, or, if you were lucky, call someone who might be near a code book and hope they had the right section bookmarked. Sometimes those calls were from payphones. I remember those days. I lived those days. They were slow, frustrating, and inefficient. That’s not nostalgia, that’s just the truth. Today, we have the ability to look up almost anything in seconds. We can have the Florida Building Code open on one screen and email open on another, all from a tablet sitting in the cab of a truck. That kind of access is a game changer. For inspectors, for contractors, and for anyone trying to keep the work moving and done right.
Technology keeps us moving forward, whether we want to or not. And while some people love to resist it, I look at it differently. I see it as a tool that makes life easier. It reduces time on the job site, plain and simple. Whether you're the contractor swinging the hammer, the inspector climbing the ladder, or the plans examiner reviewing submittals, technology has made every one of those jobs faster, more accurate, and far more trackable. And trackability matters when you're responsible for decisions that affect safety, timelines, and money.
I still remember the nostalgia of hand-nailing asphalt shingles on a hot roof, sweating through my shirt before 8 a.m. I also remember how long it took. And how every missed swing with the hammer meant more fatigue, more frustration, and more time under that sun. The first time I used a roofing nail gun, it was like night and day. I got off the roof faster and onto the next job, which meant more money in my pocket. That nail gun didn’t make me soft. It made me efficient. Same with framing. I started by hand-nailing every 16d through studs and rafters, swinging a hammer all day. Then came the framing gun, and everything changed. Sure, I had to learn to adjust air pressure and get a feel for it, but I wasn’t going back. Ever. The finish nailer came next, and that ended the days of using a nail set on baseboard and casing. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because I didn’t need to anymore. My work was just as clean, just as tight, and done in a fraction of the time.
I carried more drywall up narrow staircases than I care to remember. I have the compressed discs in my back to show for it. But I still remember the first time the supplier sent a boom truck and fed the sheets through the second-story window. That wasn't cheating. That was progress. Anyone who tells you they miss dragging 5/8 board up a stairwell either never did it themselves or forgot what it did to their back. Technology wins with common sense, not sentimentality.
There’s a tendency for people, especially as they get older, to think the past was tougher, better, more real. It built character. Maybe it did. But what it also did was waste time, waste energy, and make the job harder than it had to be. I’ve seen more production in the field today than I ever did when every nail had to be driven by hand. Yeah, there were guys who could sink a 16d with one swing, but they were rare. And even they couldn’t keep up with someone using an air nailer the right way. Just like anything else, there’s a learning curve. But we figured it out because we had to. And because we knew it made sense.
I’ve heard this same kind of pushback in the Marine Corps. The guys who went in during the 70s swore they had it tougher than us in the 80s. We thought we had it tougher than the guys in the '90s. And so on. But the truth is, every generation faced its own version of hell. The gear may have changed, the tech may have advanced, but the physical and emotional demands stayed the same. That rifle still had to be carried. That pack still had to be worn. That M-16 was lighter than the M-14, so all that meant was that we could carry more stuff in our gear. Just like in this business, the structure still has to be built, inspected, and signed off. Tools change, but the mission doesn’t.
So in construction and code enforcement, we’ve got to stop pretending the past was better just because it was familiar. It wasn’t better. It was slower, harder on the body, and full of inefficiencies that we put up with because we didn’t know any better. Now we do. Contractors have adapted. Building departments need to adapt, too. We can’t cling to paper and nostalgia while the world is moving forward with better systems, faster communication, and data we can rely on. That’s not progress for the sake of change; that’s just common sense.
Of course, there’s still room for the old ways when they’re the best tool for the job. I still carry a plumb bob. You won’t catch me setting a door jamb without one. But that’s the exception, not the rule. We need to know when to hold on to what works and when to let go of what doesn’t. I don't need a calculator to cut hip rafters; I just need a framing square, and combining the two certainly helps.
So let’s stop trying to recreate a time that’s gone. We’re not going back, and we shouldn’t want to. We’ve got the tools to do better, faster, and smarter work than ever before. Let’s use them. Oh, that includes a plumb bob.
Technology keeps us moving forward, whether we want to or not. And while some people love to resist it, I look at it differently. I see it as a tool that makes life easier. It reduces time on the job site, plain and simple. Whether you're the contractor swinging the hammer, the inspector climbing the ladder, or the plans examiner reviewing submittals, technology has made every one of those jobs faster, more accurate, and far more trackable. And trackability matters when you're responsible for decisions that affect safety, timelines, and money.
I still remember the nostalgia of hand-nailing asphalt shingles on a hot roof, sweating through my shirt before 8 a.m. I also remember how long it took. And how every missed swing with the hammer meant more fatigue, more frustration, and more time under that sun. The first time I used a roofing nail gun, it was like night and day. I got off the roof faster and onto the next job, which meant more money in my pocket. That nail gun didn’t make me soft. It made me efficient. Same with framing. I started by hand-nailing every 16d through studs and rafters, swinging a hammer all day. Then came the framing gun, and everything changed. Sure, I had to learn to adjust air pressure and get a feel for it, but I wasn’t going back. Ever. The finish nailer came next, and that ended the days of using a nail set on baseboard and casing. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because I didn’t need to anymore. My work was just as clean, just as tight, and done in a fraction of the time.
I carried more drywall up narrow staircases than I care to remember. I have the compressed discs in my back to show for it. But I still remember the first time the supplier sent a boom truck and fed the sheets through the second-story window. That wasn't cheating. That was progress. Anyone who tells you they miss dragging 5/8 board up a stairwell either never did it themselves or forgot what it did to their back. Technology wins with common sense, not sentimentality.
There’s a tendency for people, especially as they get older, to think the past was tougher, better, more real. It built character. Maybe it did. But what it also did was waste time, waste energy, and make the job harder than it had to be. I’ve seen more production in the field today than I ever did when every nail had to be driven by hand. Yeah, there were guys who could sink a 16d with one swing, but they were rare. And even they couldn’t keep up with someone using an air nailer the right way. Just like anything else, there’s a learning curve. But we figured it out because we had to. And because we knew it made sense.
I’ve heard this same kind of pushback in the Marine Corps. The guys who went in during the 70s swore they had it tougher than us in the 80s. We thought we had it tougher than the guys in the '90s. And so on. But the truth is, every generation faced its own version of hell. The gear may have changed, the tech may have advanced, but the physical and emotional demands stayed the same. That rifle still had to be carried. That pack still had to be worn. That M-16 was lighter than the M-14, so all that meant was that we could carry more stuff in our gear. Just like in this business, the structure still has to be built, inspected, and signed off. Tools change, but the mission doesn’t.
So in construction and code enforcement, we’ve got to stop pretending the past was better just because it was familiar. It wasn’t better. It was slower, harder on the body, and full of inefficiencies that we put up with because we didn’t know any better. Now we do. Contractors have adapted. Building departments need to adapt, too. We can’t cling to paper and nostalgia while the world is moving forward with better systems, faster communication, and data we can rely on. That’s not progress for the sake of change; that’s just common sense.
Of course, there’s still room for the old ways when they’re the best tool for the job. I still carry a plumb bob. You won’t catch me setting a door jamb without one. But that’s the exception, not the rule. We need to know when to hold on to what works and when to let go of what doesn’t. I don't need a calculator to cut hip rafters; I just need a framing square, and combining the two certainly helps.
So let’s stop trying to recreate a time that’s gone. We’re not going back, and we shouldn’t want to. We’ve got the tools to do better, faster, and smarter work than ever before. Let’s use them. Oh, that includes a plumb bob.