Thank you for that.

You know, something that has helped keep me interested in math and stats over the years is the knowledge that I *don't* have to use electronics to get the answer. In every math class I've ever taken, calculators were verboten. If you have a pencil, some paper and your brain, you got it covered. I never left the mainstream courses, though--calculus, linear algebra, discrete math. Nothing exotic. I have no experience with some of the other fields you mention.

Stats of course was a different beast. We were *encouraged* to use a TI stats calculator. All I ever resorted to was a very basic calculator (otherwise, it can be time consuming and error-prone to, say, add up 30 floating-point numbers or calculate a division to 10 decimal places), and am extremely proud that I still got all A's in my stats classes. Yeah, finals were nerve-wracking; I used up every single second, while others who'd put their TI in the driver's seat were getting a start on their post-final bender while I was still pounding out numbers under the watchful glare of invigilators who just wanted me out of there so they could get a start on their post-final bender.

Hmmm...is it possible to digress when you never had a point to start with?