There was once a book called The Official Airline Guide, which ceased publishing in December, 2025 after about a hundred years. If you chose not to utilize a travel agent, especially in the 70s to 90s, the guide contained every flight for all airlines globally, including type of aircraft, meals, and so forth. You could plot your own trip, call the airline (or inform your travel agent of your choices) and book it. The small book was about 8X4 and two inches thick, fitting nicely into a briefcase or pocketbook. (The OAG is currently online, of course.)

I found that I could easily choose flights within two minutes and never had to worry about a third party messing up an itinerary. (Amex once booked a connecting flight for me which took off before my original flight was scheduled to land.) We're losing our ability to make the decisions that influence the quality of our work and the quality of our lives. Our judgment is being tossed to the side of the road, replaced by humans who don't care about us as much as we do, and/or by software that can't possibly care about us at all.

It's one thing to safely obey a red light at the corner, but it's idiotic to remain there for 30 minutes because of a lack of judgment that tells you the light is broken.