Even in that context, having a basic mental math model improves the quality of your results when you're trying to understand the world. For instance, a job off

Even in that context, having a basic mental math model improves the quality of your results when you're trying to understand the world. For instance, a job offer. One job offers you $28/hr, the other offers you $55,000 a year with 2 weeks paid vacation time Simple math shows that $28/hr, with 2 weeks unpaid vacation time, is $56,000/year. ($28*2000), and can be ~$2.3k more if you don't take vacation. Understanding of the world and yourself may make you realize that earning $1k-~$3.3k less a year would be worth it to have a set income that doesn't change even when you take vacations, but it's nice to be able to quickly compare the stark math so that you don't immediately think "big number better". That's not the best allegory to explain the utility of math, but the basic concept has rung true in many situations anecdotally in my life.