A few winters ago I watched a guy ahead of me foolishly brake on an icy, curved, 4-lane bridge. He spun out and ended up stopped, facing me in my lane, about 2 car lengths ahead. I glanced at his face and still remember his look of panic as he awaited the sickening crunch and deployment of air bags.
Instead I just looked where I wanted to go and steered around. Admittedly I wasn't calm, the adrenaline was pumping, but my actions were calm and controlled. Fortunately I had been traveling slowly enough to provide a margin of traction.
When I get my S3 I will definitely have the electronic nannies switched on most of the time. But I'm also going to find a vacant snowy parking lot, switch everything off and see how the car reacts. Then I'll know my limits so I can try to drive within them. I worry about people who never switch off ESC on their cars and don't really know how close to the edge they are pushing it.