It involved reading encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books to get the information, but the results were, perhaps a more nuanced, a more thorough understanding of the material. And outside a slide rule, a "calculator" that existed between the abacus and the Texas Instrument electronic calculator, we had no mass produced tools to do our thinking for us. It caused many of us to develop non electronic tools that we could access on the go.
And of course, we write long winded responses that few will ever read.😆
