It seems like a lot of the benefits mentioned could arise from many other activities with similar likelihood. I think a lot of it has to do with developing expe

It seems like a lot of the benefits mentioned could arise from many other activities with similar likelihood. I think a lot of it has to do with developing expertise at something you believe is important, and which you are (or can become) comfortable doing. Totally agree that for people working in abstract technical areas (e.g. software architecture, philosophy, inventing things), however, mathematics has a special sort of value over other subjects. It deals in these super distilled concepts which have very general applicability; so, the concepts you learn end up expanding this pool you can draw from for coming up with new, related ideas, in a wide range of fields. It's also important to learn it as a sort of literacy, to widen the range of technical material you can read.