A 2020 Vision of Linear Algebra
I had very intelligent linear algebra professor in college but he was, in my opinion, a very poor communicator. I paid attention to lectures and stared at the text, but couldn&#x27;t really understand the material. For the first part of a linear algebra course, students who don&#x27;t mind blindly following mechanical processes for solving problems can do very well.<p>Unfortunately I&#x27;m one of those people who tends to reject the process until I understand why it works.<p>If it wasn&#x27;t for Strang&#x27;s thoughtful and sometimes even entertaining lectures via OCW, I probably would have failed the course. Instead, as the material became considerably more abstract and actually required understanding, I had my strongest exam scores. I didn&#x27;t even pay attention in class. I finished with an A. Although my first exam was a 70&#x2F;100, below the class average, the fact that I got an A overall suggests how poorly the rest of the class must have done on the latter material, where I felt my strongest thanks to the videos.<p>So anyway, thank you Gilbert Strang.