Comment by palmotea
1 month ago
> That reminds me of when teachers would say: what if you're without a calculator? And yet we all have smartphones in our pockets today with calculators.
Your teachers had the right goal, but a bad argument. Learning arithmetic isn't just about being able to do a calculation. It's about getting your brain comfortable with math. If you always have to pull out a goddamn calculator, you'll be extremely limited.
Trust me, elementary-age me was dumb to not listen to those teachers and to become so calculator-dependent.
I think learning arithmetic is a good idea, but it’s only a part of computation. I don’t think we should get too hung up on a particular method of computation (bc there’s so many ways).