Quoting Joe Mackey to August Abolins on 04-18-20 05:34 <=-
Those that "know in their head" are probably quite few. Personally, I would respect a doctor who *would* consult official documentation on a matter. ;)
I'm not saying not to consult anyone or anything. But I would
rather go to a doctor, for example, who can say "the problem is..."
than having to look things up. Esp in an emergency situation.
Certain things are more obvious than others, though... :)
Or designing/erecting a building, bridge, etc.
Yes.. But engineers must rely on their ability to look up stuff (charts,
standards, blue prints, etc)
Again I see nothing wrong with consultations, looking things up, but
they should have the head knowledge about things.
I'd agree, but state more that they should have the BASIC head
knowledge... in many subjects, including doctors and engineers and so
forth, there is now more knowledge than any one person could be expected
to retain solely in one's head.... knowing where to look up the
specifics is what is important for anything past the basics....
Just as one can check figures using a calculator is one thing but to
not have the head knowledge that x times x equals x.
What happens if one needs to find a sum without a calculator and had
never learned how to do math? There are some schools, I understand,
that allow calculators during a math test.
But those are primarily for testing the concepts beyond the basic math
tables that one can have memorized.... the idea being that the
calculator gives more time for the more involved testing to be done...
That is, there are a lot things that should be known "automatically" without having to consult with charts, graphs, books, etc. Those are
nice to have but a lot should be known in the head.
There's a balance there... 50 years ago, when I was a Chemistry major
in college, we were required to know how to use the Chemistry Handbook
to find formulas and such, and that was expected to be used as we were
tested on various things... Sure, it saved time if we didn't need to
look it up, but it was expected by the professor that we would be using
it... a lot like the calculators now permitted... :)
That said... I still do all my math computations first either in my head
or with pen and pencil, including for my taxes.... and then check it all
with my calculator... 8 8's are 64..... ;)
ttyl neb
... "Th-th-that's easy t-t-to f-f-fix." "That's easy for you to say."
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