I was sitting in my digital logic class and my professor was going over latches and I didn't quite understand how they had an initial state when their initial state depended on a previous state. I asked my professor how they get this initial state and she went around in circles saying that if its state is not off it's on and vice-versa. Not wanting to waste anymore class time I just let it rest. Today she returns back to the topic saying who cares? I was a bit miffed because I thought we were supposed to know as much about electrical topics as possible especially the most fundamental concepts. So how much do I actually need to be a successful electrical engineer? Just generalities? Some details?

Oh and how does a latch get its initial state. I'm guessing that it depends on race conditions and which ever condition comes first then that is the state that the latch starts off with.