<story><title>Gilbert Strang Teaches Linear Algebra</title><url>https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/video-lectures/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randomstring</author><text>I wish I had this when I was learning Linear Algebra. When it was taught to me, both in HS and College, there was not a word of motivation about why we were juggling numbers around in boxes. It was tedious and had seemed to have no connection to anything.&lt;p&gt;I developed a strong dislike for LA, if not outright fear and hatred. This from someone who majored in math at university. I later learned from reading Dr Oakley&amp;#x27;s book, _A Mind For Numbers_, that this is a perfect recipe for not mastering a subject. I was sabotaging my own learning by approaching it from the point of view of something to be despised. It was many years later after reading Oakley&amp;#x27;s book that I challenged myself to learn Linear Algebra.&lt;p&gt;I found the Coursera course Coding the Matrix &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; perfect. Not only did Professor Philip Klein explain the subject well, but it was also a programming course in python. Coding the algorithms helped make them that much more concrete. I&amp;#x27;m happy to say I finished the online course with 100% grade.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately Coding the Matrix is no longer available on Coursera.&lt;p&gt;I know this thread is more about Strang being a teaching god, and he is. I wanted to add something on alternative ways to learn linear algebra.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ofrzeta</author><text>This is a problem I always had in university. Higher math always seemed to start with &amp;quot;the definition of X is Z etc.&amp;quot; and I would never know what&amp;#x27;s the purpose of doing this. When I attended a talk of Gilbert Strang many years later it was eye opening because it was a totally different approach that always accompanied theoretical concepts with a concrete interpretation.&lt;p&gt;Actually I now think it might also be a cultural thing. If you take a look at the approaches the English Wikipedia takes vs. the German Wikipedia take explaining a vector space you&amp;#x27;ll know what I mean:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Vector_space#Introduction_and_definition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Vector_space#Introduction_and_...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Vektorraum#Definition&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Vektorraum#Definition&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Gilbert Strang Teaches Linear Algebra</title><url>https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/video-lectures/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randomstring</author><text>I wish I had this when I was learning Linear Algebra. When it was taught to me, both in HS and College, there was not a word of motivation about why we were juggling numbers around in boxes. It was tedious and had seemed to have no connection to anything.&lt;p&gt;I developed a strong dislike for LA, if not outright fear and hatred. This from someone who majored in math at university. I later learned from reading Dr Oakley&amp;#x27;s book, _A Mind For Numbers_, that this is a perfect recipe for not mastering a subject. I was sabotaging my own learning by approaching it from the point of view of something to be despised. It was many years later after reading Oakley&amp;#x27;s book that I challenged myself to learn Linear Algebra.&lt;p&gt;I found the Coursera course Coding the Matrix &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; perfect. Not only did Professor Philip Klein explain the subject well, but it was also a programming course in python. Coding the algorithms helped make them that much more concrete. I&amp;#x27;m happy to say I finished the online course with 100% grade.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately Coding the Matrix is no longer available on Coursera.&lt;p&gt;I know this thread is more about Strang being a teaching god, and he is. I wanted to add something on alternative ways to learn linear algebra.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexhutcheson</author><text>&amp;gt; Unfortunately Coding the Matrix is no longer available on Coursera.&lt;p&gt;The book itself is still for sale, and the website has course slides and auto-grading software for some of the exercises: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;codingthematrix.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>