Comment by a4isms

> Some of it is pure nostalgia, though, I’ll admit. It a way to honor how people solved similar problems in the past. In the 18th century a sextant plus accurate chronometer or lunar distance table was one of the pivotal technologies of the age; you could use it to pinpoint your location on the boundless ocean within a few miles. That demands respect, and it’s also just really cool it was possible in an era before electricity and radio.

Heh heh, I was in the Sailing Cub in high school, and our Sailing Master (RIP Master Gibb) said literally the same thing about learning to navigate with sextant and chronometer even though we never sailed out of sight of land. It was all about deep respect for the history and tradition of being a Mariner.

Now I fly gliders, "the purest form of flight," and while you can get a glider with electrically operated landing gear, a jet sustainer engine, and digital navigation and flight computing devices...

There is something extraordinarily pure about the exercise of flying with everything electrical turned off (except for the transponder and radio for safety). And even purer... Flying with covered instruments so we don't even get analogue airspeed and altitude.

Circling back to slide rules... Sometimes we crave that simplicity, that direct experience of a thing.