When I started programming and messing around with technology I definitely questioned the value of learning about algorithms, mathematics, and the like. Ten years later and I'm now working on computer vision related problems. I use these algorithms, or invent variants all the time! Nearly all of my training in mathematics and computer science is beneficial in this field. Even the courses I took in abstract algebra seem helpful now because they primed my brain to be able to understand useful things like projective geometry with ease!
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It also helps if someone has already developed the product you want to sell (QDOS), and is stupid enough to sell it to you for a measly 50K.
If you've never had to write real-time, parallel, computationally intensive code in a low-level language, then yes it won't make much of a difference.
When I started programming and messing around with technology I definitely questioned the value of learning about algorithms, mathematics, and the like. Ten years later and I'm now working on computer vision related problems. I use these algorithms, or invent variants all the time! Nearly all of my training in mathematics and computer science is beneficial in this field. Even the courses I took in abstract algebra seem helpful now because they primed my brain to be able to understand useful things like projective geometry with ease!