> We've pretty much lost that. In the US :-) And those skills are entirely context dependent. You're likely saying this from a SW engineer's point of view. Wh

> We've pretty much lost that. In the US :-) And those skills are entirely context dependent. You're likely saying this from a SW engineer's point of view. Whereas I've worked in teams with physicists and electrical engineers. When you're in a meeting, and there is a technical discussion, and everyone can calculate in their head the effects after integrating a well known function and how that will impact the physical system, while you have to pull out a calculator/computer, you'll be totally lost. You can argue that you could be as productive as the others if you were given the time (e.g. doing this on your own at your own cubicle), but no one will give you that time in meetings.