>Never said to do away with the fundamentals. Will say that most symbolic differentiation and integration (which is a big chunk of the coursework) is not fundamental as much as it is fruitless busywork.
It's no more busywork than being able to multiply two single digit numbers in your head. Whether it's useful to your job really depends on the job. I had a job once in the engineering industry. When we were in meetings discussing projects, if you could not do those types of analyses (e.g. asymptotic behavior of certain Calc II type integrals) in your head, you would not know what's going on. Sure, everyone could explicitly show all the steps for your benefit, but you'd be slowing everyone down.
It's no more busywork than being able to multiply two single digit numbers in your head. Whether it's useful to your job really depends on the job. I had a job once in the engineering industry. When we were in meetings discussing projects, if you could not do those types of analyses (e.g. asymptotic behavior of certain Calc II type integrals) in your head, you would not know what's going on. Sure, everyone could explicitly show all the steps for your benefit, but you'd be slowing everyone down.