35 ms·

I'm full up with taking the AI and ML courses from Stanford. Both courses provide background material in linear algebra, so I guess I'll make do with that for a

I'm full up with taking the AI and ML courses from Stanford. Both courses provide background material in linear algebra, so I guess I'll make do with that for awhile. Two notes, though: The book is rather expensive (over $100USD) and, notwithstanding the glowing comments here, has some pretty scathing negative comments on Amazon. The question that comes to my mind is: If a book is going to reach an internet audience, is it still appropriate to charge classroom prices?

gruseom 15y ago
No argument on the price; it amounts to assault. But the reviews on Amazon are interesting. Most love it, some hate it. The first thing I noticed is that the reviewers who love the book are the ones who take pleasure in the material. There are two kinds of negative reviewer: students who found it confusing (I suspect because it didn't hold their hand in the usual way - its focus is on developing intuition, something no one who just-wants-to-get-this-over-with could care less about) and mathematically more sophisticated readers who don't like its informality and gushiness. In other words, the negative reviews pretty much sum up what's good about the book. Of course, we're barely into it. I'm assuming the rest is like the first. Here's a litmus test for whether you would like it. This is how Strang introduces Gaussian elimination: The problem is to find the unknown values of u, v, and w, and we shall apply Gaussian elimination. (Gauss is recognized as the greatest of all mathematicians, but certainly not because of this invention, which probably took him ten minutes. Ironically, it is the most frequently used of all the ideas that bear his name.) The method starts by subtracting multiples of the first equation from the other equations. The goal is to eliminate u from the last two equations. That colloquial aside is irrelevant and would drive readers who are gritting their teeth to begin with crazy. I love it. It reminds me of my favorite old math prof to whom Euler was a close personal friend. If you find such a style delightful, this is the book for you. Strang's goal in this book seems to be to get you as excited about the subject as he is, and share how he really thinks about it, convention be damned. That's why it's Hippie Strang!
- julsonl 15y ago
  Based from your excerpt, that's basically the type of book I would want to read. Reading a math book without having any background with what the heck I was grinding numbers for would just bore me to tears. I might have an ebook on that lying somewhere...
tptacek 15y ago
The book is expensive. On the other hand, it's a rounding error compared to the cost of the time it's going to take to get through the book. For whatever it's worth, PDF versions of the book are all over Scribd. I bought it (twice) but am actually working from a "stolen" PDF.
julsonl 15y ago
Ditto. Juggling between AI, ML and DB classes has been eating up all my free time. Though I have bought the book eons ago, I am yet to go through it. Correction: I take the last sentence back. I have "Standard Strang" instead (it was cheaper).

gruseom 15y ago

No argument on the price; it amounts to assault. But the reviews on Amazon are interesting. Most love it, some hate it. The first thing I noticed is that the reviewers who love the book are the ones who take pleasure in the material. There are two kinds of negative reviewer: students who found it confusing (I suspect because it didn't hold their hand in the usual way - its focus is on developing intuition, something no one who just-wants-to-get-this-over-with could care less about) and mathematically more sophisticated readers who don't like its informality and gushiness. In other words, the negative reviews pretty much sum up what's good about the book. Of course, we're barely into it. I'm assuming the rest is like the first. Here's a litmus test for whether you would like it. This is how Strang introduces Gaussian elimination: The problem is to find the unknown values of u, v, and w, and we shall apply Gaussian elimination. (Gauss is recognized as the greatest of all mathematicians, but certainly not because of this invention, which probably took him ten minutes. Ironically, it is the most frequently used of all the ideas that bear his name.) The method starts by subtracting multiples of the first equation from the other equations. The goal is to eliminate u from the last two equations. That colloquial aside is irrelevant and would drive readers who are gritting their teeth to begin with crazy. I love it. It reminds me of my favorite old math prof to whom Euler was a close personal friend. If you find such a style delightful, this is the book for you. Strang's goal in this book seems to be to get you as excited about the subject as he is, and share how he really thinks about it, convention be damned. That's why it's Hippie Strang!

julsonl 15y ago
Based from your excerpt, that's basically the type of book I would want to read. Reading a math book without having any background with what the heck I was grinding numbers for would just bore me to tears. I might have an ebook on that lying somewhere...

tptacek 15y ago

The book is expensive. On the other hand, it's a rounding error compared to the cost of the time it's going to take to get through the book. For whatever it's worth, PDF versions of the book are all over Scribd. I bought it (twice) but am actually working from a "stolen" PDF.

julsonl 15y ago

Ditto. Juggling between AI, ML and DB classes has been eating up all my free time. Though I have bought the book eons ago, I am yet to go through it. Correction: I take the last sentence back. I have "Standard Strang" instead (it was cheaper).