It's interesting that this piece stands well enough if you replace mathematics with probably any other intellectual profession, including software development or pretty much anything else.

  And, I lie to anyone who asks me why I’m a mathematician.
  It is much easier to claim “I love learning the laws of life,”
  while literally handwaving, than it is for me to flashback to
  the twenty or so pivotal moments that lead to me walking out
  of Gainesville with a PhD in Arithmetic Geometry.

Since “normal” people mostly don't understand what the software development job is about, handwaving in response to regular questions: “what do you do at work?”, “what do you like about your job?” – is pretty normal. I think that most of us have some prepared answers ready to use.

  Mathematics is the thing you try to understand, don’t,
  get frustrated about, and then do.

Just like the software development. I truly believe that the only people who can survive a software job are those who can tolerate the constant feeling of frustration caused by things not working or breaking for random reasons, and persevere in this environment to do the things you need to do.