With film cameras and their cost of film plus processing time, you wanted every shot to count, which probably us better photographers. I've forgotten most of it now but back then I had a fairly intuitive understanding of the impacts of aperture and shutter speed
When we were young, we probably had a poor sense of history and legacy. Taking a decent picture was a little more involved than it is today. While our (older) generation can be faulted, I have a drawer of photos passed down to me from the early half of the last century and even the latter half of 19th; B&W stiff, severe-looking people and I have no idea who they are because nobody had the foresight to write on the back. Grrrr.