Am I understanding correctly that around 1997 a single person transcribed 42 hours of recordings? Wild and impressive. I wonder how long it took them?
Modern tools would likely do it in 42 minutes?
Modern tools would likely do it in 42 minutes?
For me, it is notable that this is notable for you. This used to be as ubiquitous of a profession in modern organizations as typists were. Many people's entire job was going to meetings and/or listening to calls, transcribing the conversation, not just taking notes.
Professional stenographers transcribe in realtime with phonetic markers and everything. Even lightly trained transcriptionists can transcribe 1 hour of audio in 1.25-1.5 hours of wall clock time. For an amateur, you could probably get to a 1:2 ratio within a few hours. It's at max two full weeks of work.