You presuppose there'll always be a GUI. That's similar to the assumption that I don't need reading skills since there'll always be an audio version. True for m

You presuppose there'll always be a GUI. That's similar to the assumption that I don't need reading skills since there'll always be an audio version. True for many cases, but the more you approach one-off, the more you'll find there is no audio version. Or no GUI. The question is, are there examples where the cost of acquiring and applying the skill is worth the savings? In individual instances, doubtful. Done habitually, probably - the case for reading is fairly well established. The case for computational literacy might be hampered by the very spotty availability of data. Once you can obtain data sets, it definitely becomes worth it. Silly overprivileged example: When I was looking for a place to live, I was evaluating the location to choose based on a heat map generated from 20+ different metrics. As a result, I found a place that * Was well below what you usually pay * Was pretty unique for the area I'm in * Makes me happy every day * Only cost me a 15 minute increase in commute time. (This is L.A., so consider that an achievement of epic proportions ;) Was that one instance worth spending time learning how to work with computers? No. But it's one single neat payoff. And if the data hadn't required custom scrapers, it would've required only minutes of my time.