The need for making math more accessible is for sure a good idea. I believe the uproar was caused mostly due to the tone behind his tweet. He would have got similar uproar if had tweeted that "He hates espresso and that coffee companies are acting as gatekeepers by not manufacturing coffee powder premixed with lots of milk and sugar". Lynam is entitled to his opinion. But didn't realize that Math notation was not invented \ nor obliged to cater to the programming community alone. While we are discussiong notations, there is an interetsing thessis about notation from the Turing award winner Ken Iverson and some additional bits in my blog . Your feedback is welcome https://medium.com/@nilesh.pawar_27572/whats-common-between-roman-numerals-chess-and-chemistry-743dabc6a083