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Folks would generally have been better at mental math, or at least working it out on paper, because at the time there was some truth to the notion of “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket.”
I personally don’t consider it bad that we rely more on this little device most of us carry everywhere now. That’s what it’s there for, and using a calculator app is going to generally give more accurate results than trying to crunch numbers in our heads anyway. At least for those of us who aren’t math wizards.
I heard an anecdote that one of the reasons older structures last longer than newer buildings was until the days of using Log Tables, engineers had to round up to the nearest values to match the values in the log table when calculating complex forces, and this rounding compounded when multiplied against other rounded values. Once computers were being used with design, you could calculate the forces exactly to minimize material costs.
I think being good at estimations and having some intuition when something doesn't match up for a restaurant bill or grocery shop is helpful though. And I don't think a lot of people would get out their phone to double check the calculation.
But yeah, having this magic rectangle in our pockets is pretty nice.