Likewise here. With the back of my hand, another old habit. Chips are more robust today, but not 100%, and some specialized devices like laser diodes are super

Likewise here. With the back of my hand, another old habit. Chips are more robust today, but not 100%, and some specialized devices like laser diodes are super sensitive to ESD. The most evil thing are those plastic mats that people put over carpet in their offices so they can roll their rolling chairs. That's like sitting on a van de graaf generator. I killed several valuable EPROMs at my first job out of school, sitting at my desk, programming, then went to touch a chip to program it, ZAP! When chips are in circuit boards, they're much less sensitive, due to the capacitance of the board traces. It's been a long time since I worried about handling a board. Of course the cost and irreplaceability of the board figures into the risk calculation.