Funnily enough, that's exactly the debate (whether or not natural numbers start at 0 or 1). There is no universally right or wrong answer, is comp sci nerds just tend to like 0 :p.

Everyone knows N_0 == N\{0} == the natural numbers without zero. This resolves the ambiguity and was my go-to for zero-denier professors in undergrad.

> But the natural numbers are for counting, you can't count to zero!

Why don't you count the number of cool people who don't think zero is a natural number, loser?

[0] also it works beautifully for pointer arithmetic