[RobertRoberts]

>Even "the tech" can have some understanding of finite precision integers and floats, and how they behave, given they're building blocks of the trade.

I do have "some understanding". But not enough to processing millions of records and notice that one or two numbers of output, out of hundreds, aren't correct. That's the PhD's job.

[dbaupp]

Concepts like finite integer sizes (aka integer overflow) and finite floating point precision (1/3+1/3+1/3 != 1) aren't PhD-level concerns. :)