Even Older Man Yells At Whippersnappers

[D'Arcy Cain]

On 09/19/2017 03:07 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> How relevant is the "people use calculators to do arithmetic" argument
>> today?  Okay, so I'm old and cynical, but I know [young] people who
>> don't (can't?) calculate a gratuity without an app or a web page.
> 
> Which is a form of calculator. People still learn to use calculators at
> school, they still use them at work. They use Excel, which is prone to

Wow.  I still remember decrying the use of calculators in school.  It 
seemed like the loss of actual math understanding.  When I was young 
(and not running from dinosaurs) we learned the addition and 
multiplication tables by heart (and received a few sore knuckles while 
we struggled) and then learned to do math by paper and pencil.  When it 
was time for a mechanical aid we got a slide rule.  I truly believe that 
doing so gave me the best understanding of math that I could get.  Now, 
of course, I use calculators and computers but I still understand the 
theory behind what I am doing.

To this day while writing code I will actually put pen to paper in order 
to check that my program is doing the correct calculations.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain
Vybe Networks Inc.
http://www.VybeNetworks.com/
IM:darcy at Vex.Net VoIP: sip:darcy at VybeNetworks.com