Easy enough. The "pretty ones" are being fucked more than the ugly ones.
You are completely correct in that. There is indeed a difference between knowledge (data) and reasoning. However, chances are that if you haven't got a clue whatsoever about numbers and orders of magnitude, that you won't reason very much either.
Most of the time when I read something related to physics, I like to do a rough calculation in my head to see if what is stated seems logical to me. Like how high the ocean level will rise when so many tons of ice melts on Antarctica, what efficiency can be reached with some new kind of solar cell (and whether this is spectacular or not), how long it would take an airliner to fly around the world, etc.
Fortunately your book collection is in the bathroom.
Short answer: because people like books.
Books are (at least in my opinion) easier to browse and go everywhere. Also it is faster to reach for a book than to boot some reader, find a file etc... whereas a book is just sitting on the shelf. Obviously this only works for stuff you have read before (and remembered more or less where it was).
You have a point that it makes little sense not to get all books from a library, but sometimes people just want to have something.
And by another odd coincidence, other particle physicists took a detour into Wall Street, where they
Why would everybody "in charge" have gotten there by kissing ass? My previous boss managed 5 teams (of 1 to 3 persons, I was a one-man team), none of which he would have been able to replace because he didn't know the technical details of any team's work. But he was a great boss, great manager and did exactly what he needed to do, i.e. from all management decisions filter out the things any of his people needed to do, tell them and follow-up. And give them the resources.
Without these "glorified secretaries", most companies would collapse.
Seriously, they're people. You make it sound like you're some exotic zoo keeper and you need to know what to do when they present their glowing red ass.
To be honest, judging from some of the comments here, that is an idea programmers seem to want to promote themselves, because they are more special and gifted than normal human beings.
I'm not trolling here. Just scroll up and you'll see.
Who says the term "piracy" can't have two meanings? If the rest of the world is ok with calling this form of copyright infringement "piracy", even though no physical is stolen, then that is what it means.
Besides -and this is not addressed at somersault- it is beyond me why this type of topic always leads to semantic discussions. I, for one, whould not be shouting off the roofs that I am reaping the fruits of another's labor, against his will, whether this is called theft, piracy, copyright onfringement or whatever. I do it, like everybody, but at least I don't try to make it ok with Newspeak.
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.