> But there is something about degree-level maths and beyond that I find deeply unintuitive in a way that software development isn't. Grok. Over the years, I

> But there is something about degree-level maths and beyond that I find deeply unintuitive in a way that software development isn't. Grok. Over the years, I come to the conclusion that one of the stumbling blocks is the definition/concept of "application". Just like the definition of "theory" is different for a layman ("My theory is..." == "My guess is...") than from a scientist's definition ("My theory is" == "My logical framework which incorporates all of the available data is..."), so the definition of "application" is different between mathematicians and engineers. I've noticed that math books with titles like "$HIGHER_ORDER_MATH with Applications" means "$HIGHER_ORDER_MATH with Exercises". What I'm looking for is something like "$HIGHER_ORDER_MATH with Real-World Uses". I've known LA for decades but, like you, where would I use it in my life? The turning point for me was Andrew Ng's Deep Neural Network course. I knew that a DNN is a program of matrix operations, but how do you get 5,000 images into a matrix? One way is to resize all the images to the same n x n size, take the first pixel of each picture and break them into their RGB components. You now have the first three rows of your input matrix. Repeat for all other pixels and voila! You have a 5,000 x n matrix that you can do linear algebra on! _That's_ an application; having me add two matrices together is an exercise. Since that insight, I've used LA in my job in the hospitably sector with impressive success because now I know how to apply it. Math books and 3B1B show you the math. We engineers (or at least this one) need real world uses.