> Sure I have a new found love for math, but I'm not going to be accepted as a mathematician ever without the rigor of a formal education
I think there are two separate things here:
1. Being a research mathematician requires a degree of expertise which is easier to come by with formal education.
2. Knowing how to use APIs and make correct distributional assumptions; despite the bullshit fed by our industry, it is not easy or non trivial to design a completely idiot proof API. So having know-how of how the math works under the hood is helpful even if you are going to just use the API.
I think there are two separate things here:
1. Being a research mathematician requires a degree of expertise which is easier to come by with formal education.
2. Knowing how to use APIs and make correct distributional assumptions; despite the bullshit fed by our industry, it is not easy or non trivial to design a completely idiot proof API. So having know-how of how the math works under the hood is helpful even if you are going to just use the API.