Oh so this is just a retire in peace .. I was affraid for a minute.
You thought he’d slipped into the null space, but instead he found his dominant eigenvector.
Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
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Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#42Linear Algebra was a course in the first semester of freshman year when I was in uni (this wasn't in the US or in an english speaking country). It was famous for being a "filter" course, that made a lot of people quit the degree and switch to a different degree next year. It had a 94% failure rate, but I got to pass on the first attempt because Gil's free lectures of his LA course made me intuitively understand the s…
I agree with u on Strang, wonderful lectures. I always learned on books at least a decade or older, I was amazed even the 90s about his lasting legacy. He has been helping people with linear algebra for more than 50 years. I haven’t even been alive for that long.
Weeder courses shouldn’t exist, they are immoral. Glad you survived yours.
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#43Linear Algebra was a course in the first semester of freshman year when I was in uni (this wasn't in the US or in an english speaking country). It was famous for being a "filter" course, that made a lot of people quit the degree and switch to a different degree next year. It had a 94% failure rate, but I got to pass on the first attempt because Gil's free lectures of his LA course made me intuitively understand the s…
I agree with u on Strang, wonderful lectures. I always learned on books at least a decade or older, I was amazed even the 90s about his lasting legacy. He has been helping people with linear algebra for more than 50 years. I haven’t even been alive for that long. Weeder courses shouldn’t exist, they are immoral. Glad you survived yours.
Such an interesting principal to carry, I never thought about it before.
Now that I am, it seems kinder to fail people early out of paths they are ill suited to follow, no?
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#44[dead]
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with u on Strang, wonderful lectures. I always learned on books at least a decade or older, I was amazed even the 90s about his lasting legacy. He has been helping people with linear algebra for more than 50 years. I haven’t even been alive for that long. Weeder courses shouldn’t exist, they are immoral. Glad you survived yours.
Such an interesting principal to carry, I never thought about it before. Now that I am, it seems kinder to fail people early out of paths they are ill suited to follow, no?
If it’s something they’re interested in or need to know for their career, then I don’t think it’s possible to be ill-suited, only ill-prepared.
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with u on Strang, wonderful lectures. I always learned on books at least a decade or older, I was amazed even the 90s about his lasting legacy. He has been helping people with linear algebra for more than 50 years. I haven’t even been alive for that long. Weeder courses shouldn’t exist, they are immoral. Glad you survived yours.
Such an interesting principal to carry, I never thought about it before. Now that I am, it seems kinder to fail people early out of paths they are ill suited to follow, no?
It’s mostly because in free public universities there’s an appetite for making things hard. Very hard. The less students graduate, the most prestigious they think they are
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#47Linear Algebra was a course in the first semester of freshman year when I was in uni (this wasn't in the US or in an english speaking country). It was famous for being a "filter" course, that made a lot of people quit the degree and switch to a different degree next year. It had a 94% failure rate, but I got to pass on the first attempt because Gil's free lectures of his LA course made me intuitively understand the s…
I took linear algebra about 20 years ago as a requirement for my CS degree. I had no clue whatsoever what it was for beyond just "solving systems of equations" - whatever that meant. The prof didn't impress upon us how it underpins all of machine learning (which, mind you, wasn't as much of a hot topic then that it is now). Our attempts at grokking its importance were largely met with a kind of "because it's important" dismissal.
I didn't do great in the course, and when it was done, I was pretty happy this useless subject was behind me.
It wasn't until several years into my profession that I learned how important linear algebra truly is. I now work very closely with tons of data scientists, and I still feel like I should go back and learn it better.
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#48I used his book on linear algebra during my studies in Germany, even though the professor teaching LA pursued a different (and I found more confusing) approach. I found the book really enjoyable, in my mental bookshelf it rests right next to the Feynman lectures in physics.
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the top universities have majority of their profs caring almost exclusively about research though. I think MIT is (or at least was) a bit of an exception, where there was enough of a critical mass of profs that cared about teaching. Can't say the same for a couple other "top" unis I've spent time at.
Yes I've heard that as well. For example I heard 2nd hand that Andrew Wiles at Princeton, who famously solved Fermat's last theorem, is a brilliant researcher but a terrible professor. I had a math professor from Dartmouth who told me that Dartmouth really emphasized teaching in their phd program and he was indeed an exceptional teacher. I wish that was emphasized more, or they separate hardcore researchers from the…
It’s a good point, although Princeton in general places a higher emphasis on undergraduate teaching than a number of other top research universities, so that example might be idiosyncratic if true.
The emphasis on teaching in a PhD program may not have much bearing on the quality of undergraduate teaching at a university, though it might be indicative of a culture or spirit.
Re: Gilbert Strang's final lecture at MIT: May 15, 11:00am
#50Not to steal limemlight away from Strang, but I'd recommend again Pavel Grinfeld's (the website host, also Strang's student (I think)) Linear Algebra series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlXfTHzgMRUKXD88IdzS1....