Comment by moregrist

I haven’t had the need to in decades either but I can still do it. Similarly with the standard algorithms for multi-digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

I think learning these algorithms was useful not because we use these tools ourselves but because it taught us useful concepts: very practical step-by-step algorithms, and a hands-on introduction to decimal places and powers of ten.

There are other ways to learn these things but I learned them in elementary school by doing hundreds of arithmetic problems over 4-5 years. That knowledge stays with me even if I don’t pull out long division for anything practical.