[derleth]

How often do the programmers around here need binary arithmetic? Not very often, I'd wager. Even the people who do low-level programming use logic and decimal arithmetic more than actual binary arithmetic.

It's almost as funny as Heinlein just assuming that every computer expert would need to have tools to repair hardware. He never quite wrapped his mind around someone focusing exclusively on software; maybe he never grasped 'software' as a distinct concept.

[deletes]

Computer technology covers both software and hardware, and in the latter binary arithmetic must be mastered. For others it is good to understand the fundamentals so in that 0.01 percent of cases you know what are you doing. A general CS class in universities includes it, I was though how to multiply floats, but yes it is mostly not used.