šŸš€ Seven Days of New Things Day 2: Linear Algebra, Tulips | James' Coffee Blog

Linear Algebra

I think I am starting to enjoy maths (maybe).

Toward the end of high school, my maths classes were anxiety-inducing. Our teacher liked to ask people at random in the class what they thought was the answer to questions. At this time, I was not comfortable speaking out in front of the whole class. I always worried about whether my answer would be right, knowing there were people around me who would definitely know the answer. I was good at maths in the academic sense, but I, like many, encountered math as a subject strictly to learn rather than to be appreciated.

Yesterday and today, I started the 3Blue1Brown course on linear algebra, a topic in math that is the foundation of modern deep learning. I encounter terms like "matrix multiplication" and "vector" on an almost daily basis, but my understanding is grounded in their application or what they represent, not how they work. I want to change that and learn a bit more about the how behind linear algebra. What are the foundational operations? How do they work? How can I build a mental model to understand them?

James is doing a Seven Days Of New Things challenge and Iā€™m enjoying the series a lot. #thoughts