Yep, it's true. Hand-drafting on paper with an H pencil allowed me to memorize entire sets of construction documents, so that when I paid a visit to the jobsite I didn't need a roll of plans under my arm to answer the contractors' questions.
That reminds me of the famous misstatement by Neil Armstrong, who was scripted to say, "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Instead, he pronounced, "One small step for... whoa! Dude! This is WAY cool!"
ACAD, not so much.