In Reply to: Re: I don't think it is that big of a deal posted by confused442 on September 26, 2026 at 16:02:25
I've been thinking the same for the last couple of years.
When I was working and teaching on the job, we had to teach a course on calculating penalties and interest. It was outdated when I started in the 80s because it was far more efficient to call the office and get the number. By the time I retired everyone was walking around with connected laptops. And they were still teaching that course.
The manual full pay calculations were never exact, and we were told to tell them that the real figure will probably change, so you can expect the final figure within a couple days. The actual rates were easy to figure out on the fly (5% and .5%). And quite easy to come up with an approximation. P&I was a two-day course that should have been taught in 2 hours. OTOH, Interview techniques was only a 2-hour class with only one workshop.
The crux of the job was interviewing people and getting them to buy in onto some kind of payment plan that would work.
So, how does this relate to the sub OP. The generation of today has so many good tools to get information. They often get chided for not knowing what we call basic information. But I bet if you gave them a phone and said name the countries that surround Iran and tell me which ones are hostile and friendly they would come up with an answer faster than me. They have a lifeline (apologies to who wants to be a millionaire), their phone, and every day they hear it is getting better and stronger.
I do not think they are dumber, but I do believe their common practical knowledge is different, and I am not talking Idiocracy.