I didn't know but the most common cause of shortening the life of your precious motherboard after static discharge is to access the motherboard whilst it is powered on. I have been doing this for years but recently I learnt my lesson.
The pc was actually off but still connected at the mains. I was trying to remove a pci card and I dropped the screw onto the board which powered it on. Next thing I know is that the onboard NIC is gone from device manager. I killed it.
I also tried to change a fan whilst motherboard was on. As I connected it to the header the pc restarted and learnt that the fan header had died.
You may get away with it a million times but one day you'll be caught out!