Comment Problem Solving Is Why (Score 1) 656
Parent got it right; it's about problem solving. I have dual math and cs degrees, and while most of the actual math escaped me decades ago (I couldn't solve half the diff-EQs or integrals now that I could in college), the practices and thought processes have (IMnsHO) made me a better programmer. Programming is about efficiency as much or more than it is about knowing any specific language or being able to execute a particular task. Most importantly, I think is the ability to have faith that your code is correct and complete... proofs in linear algebra and number theory were immensely helpful for that. Testing edge cases and knowing that your loops will terminate properly flex the same muscles as proofs by induction. I think of Pollard's rho more doing database programming than I did in math classes, but I'm glad someone pointed it out to me there.
Math can also be directly applicable depending on what you're going into. Visual and game programming is full of geometry and trigonometry. Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Data Mining all require statistics, hashing algorithms, efficient tree traversal, and all sorts of things that span the boundary between CS and Math. In the end, though, all of programming is just implementing algorithms, and all algorithms are just math problems. The two complement each other brilliantly.