Forbes on the Uselessness of Math

Forbes has an interesting guest editorial on its online page. Mr. Joseph Tartakovsky has decided to write an op-ed on the uselessness of studying math. I suppose that Forbes decided to run this in the interest of equal time, given that they've linked to an essay by Diane Ravitch. Tartakovsky is a law student who has no use whatsoever for math, stating "Why teach math in the age of the calculator? The device is available everywhere, from cellphones to fashionable watches."

Like any good lawyer, he backs up his thesis with facts:

"Once a visitor to the Indian prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) noted that his cab number, 1729, seemed "rather a dull one." "No," replied Ramanujan, "it is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." He did that in his head. So what? Give me two minutes and my calculator watch, and I'll do the same without exerting any little gray cells. "

Look Tartakovsky, I hate to be the one to rain on your parade, what with publication in Forbes and all, but I think that even with two calculators and a laptop you wouldn't be able to prove Ramanujan's thesis.

He goes on and completes his proof of the uselessness of math by showing that both Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill were bad at math but went on to illustrious careers in spite of it.

Other than the fact that Tartakovsky has no use for math, I don't know what point he is trying to make. I only hope that as our recession worsens, he doesn't write an essay scolding big business for hiring engineers from China and India when so many people in the U.S. need jobs.