There's a learning curve to function in the modern world

I bought my first electronic calculator several years ago when I was in grad school. It was made by Texas Instruments and was a little bigger than a deck of cards. It could add, subtract, multiply, and divide much faster and more accurately than I could with my old slide rule.

I paid $100 for it. After a couple weeks, I put my slide rule away and never used it again.

Today you can find smaller calculators with more power at the Dollar Store. As manufacturers skill increased, the price went down. The fancy economic term for this phenomenon is “learning curve.” You see this in other products as...