This reminds me of the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?. There ARE other ways of "knowing", besides logic and mathematics. However, you still need to know what the words mean, even if you are not expert at the underlying theory. For instance, as a programmer, you probably should have a good idea what the difference is between an integer and a real number( even if it is as simple as one has a decimal point and one dosn't).

I have been fortunate to have been given the chance to become well aquainted with math and engineering, even though I'm not an expert at it. Sometimes this makes me question whether my "view of reality" has been "comprimised", for instance is the "real world" really a base10 system? We have grown so accustommed to counting in 10's, but maybe it's all just a human illusion.( There is some wild philosophical thought, that humans are a "reflection" of the universe, so maybe there is something to having 10 toes and fingers? :-) )

So how would you grasp the functioning of systems, whithout a mathematical knowledge of it's engineering? You can "feel it". Like the "zen mechanic", who can feel the power generated in the engine, and observe that so much power, will break a small transmission chain, and conclude the chain must be "stronger". So he goes and buys a bigger chain.

Everything in the material world can be thought of in terms of "energy and time". Power is the amount of energy flowing per unit of time.

In computing, you add "patterns" to the energy, we call it "information". Networking just is the art of transferring those "energy patterns" from point A to point B.

So if you look at programs like little black boxes, where information(of one energy pattern) is fed in, and energy of a different pattern flows out, you could be just as good as a programmer who describes the actual bit values in 1's and 0's.

Anyways.....yes there are other ways of looking at computing, but "managers" play the odds....they know that someone with a math background will "probably" have an easier time understanding what is actually happening, but it is not always the case. Look at autistic genius sees numbers as shapes

I would just love to see how this guy sees a program in his head. But managers are not going to hire on the basis of "promised genius"...they want people who will "toe the line"...be organized and part of a regimented team etc.