[analog31]

Stuff has gotten a lot more robust, except for specialized things such as laser diodes. Also, once an IC is soldered onto a circuit board, it's not invincible, but less prone to damage because the capacitance on the board limits the voltage spike.

The only time I ever damaged IC's was when I had my office chair on one of those plastic mats that lets you roll your chair around on a carpeted floor. That was a static electricity generator.

If you're regularly getting static zaps during dry winter weather, on things like doorknobs, it's a sign that you need to be more careful with your electronics.

[JohnFen]

> Stuff has gotten a lot more robust

It has, yes.

But even back when things weren't as robust, I never got into the habit of using a wrist strap. Just remembering to touch something grounded before poking at things seems to have done the trick. I don't think I ever fried a device through ESD.

[analog31]

I sometimes ground my chair through a 1-meg resistor when I'm feeling zaps during dry winter months. Also, run some copper tape along front edge of workbench, through 1-meg to ground, as a place to conveniently touch.

My bout with damaged chips was when I was programming early EPROM microcontrollers, and a zapped chip bore a strong resemblance to a firmware bug, so it was a frustrating time until I discovered the actual cause.