Why do you need to know linear algebra or calculus in programming? A poignant answer is: you never really know! The future will surprise you! Watching the m

Why do you need to know linear algebra or calculus in programming? A poignant answer is: you never really know! The future will surprise you! Watching the movie about AlphaGo and all other stuff DeepMind has done will give you all the answers you need about the why NN. The question in the first line has an obvious answer and it is just rhetorical. The bigger point is: this mindset doesn't apply just to Neural Networks, many things in mathematics are useful years after they are first invented, and it is better to learn general principles and have an open mind, Richard Feynman style.