Strong math background implies an ability for solving problems analytically. Programming requires this, but also requires a fair amount of implementation work

Strong math background implies an ability for solving problems analytically. Programming requires this, but also requires a fair amount of implementation work which may not be related to the core analysis problem. Speaking strictly for myself (physics grad), it's easy for me to get caught up in some sort of interesting data analysis, but programming can be a bore because it involves so much extra stuff. I firmly believe that this is the reason software like Matlab survives: not because its analysis functions are faster or better, but because it tends to push everything but the math and visualization out of the way.