Math is not necessary for software development

The article writer is woefully ignorant. How can you be a career developer and not understand big O notation? Logic isn't just true or false, it's going deeper and learning k-maps and state machines in the bare basics of a programmers education. And it's math turtles all the way down...

"Logic > Math"

Technically, "Logic ⊂ Math". Your argument is invalid.

(that's the "subset of" operator above, in case the Unicode doesn't make it)

It really depends on which layer of the software stack you are working on. The closer you come to the hardware the more mathematical understanding you will need, e.g. writing a compiler.

But it's also very true that if you work with high level languages like C# and python you can perfectly get your job done with just using a clever library that hides the underlaying mathematical problems.

I also totally agree that communication, empathy and writing skills are extremly important for software engineers. Coding is always an act of communication, be it with your client, with the machine or with your fellow co-workers.

Push-ups are not necessary for football. As a football player, catching and running with the ball are more valuable than push-up proficiency.

We don't teach every child math because we want them to become mathematicians or anything in the STEM fields, just like we don't teach them PE (physical exercise) because we want them to become professional athletes. We have mandatory PE classes because having a fit and healthy body will serve you (and society at large) extremely well no matter what you end up doing in life. In the same vein, we have mandatory math classes because having an agile and skilled mind will also serve you (and society at large) extremely well no matter what you end up doing in life.

The article claims written communication and reading comprehension are so much more important than math to a developer. This is like saying catching balls and breaking tackles are so much more important than push-ups, pull-ups, or all the weight-lifting you do in the gym. Learning math is a great way to enhance and improve your communication skills! Try explaining some advanced math concept to a kid sometime.

This is essentially a duplicate of the plethora of HN articles arguing for or against considering computer science a math. And it always comes down to whether or not the author is working on anything remotely significant. The entire fields of machine learning, large data processing and natural language processing is heavily rooted in the calculus, set, and fuzzy set theory... which in some shape or form is the evolving requirements of most large systems (text or graphics). None of the math is abstracted away and a fundamental understanding of the mathematics is the difference between the programmer making 60k and the programmer making 150k. So why would anyone want to state it's 'un"necessary"'. Personally... in the case of fuzzy sets and classification the philosophies of logic, reasoning, and mathematics require a balance of the two to deduce the proper functions.

I do agree that communication and prose is important to a polyglot professional's resume. However not seeing a connection between linguistics and mathematics is naive. Symbolic transformation and interpretation is the same no matter what the flavor.

Can we please get over the fact that no one writes binary anymore and look at the entire field of "software development" - graphics, ai, information theory, distributed systems, anything involving a graph

Essentially... learn it all. That is unless you want to excel at communication and fast track yourself to project management.