
A conversation with Gilbert Strang [video] - espeed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGYcSjrqbjc
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mlthoughts2018
In 2009 I was applying to grad schools and was a complete nobody shmuck. I was
walking through MIT on a grad student visit and we went past the offices of
both Gil Strang and Sigurdur Helgason and I told the grad student guide that I
just had to give it a try to say hello.

Not only did Gil Strang say hi, to some totally random nobody, but he invited
me into his office, asked me about my undergrad studies (he even knew one of
my undergrad professors well), and said a lot of nice and encouraging things
about sticking with mathematics and finding a career. Siggy Helgason wasn’t
in, unfortunately, but I remember Gil Strang referred to him as “the national
hero of Iceland” and said I should say hi to him too since I was interested in
differential geometry.

What a guy! So gracious with his time in a way that too few academics are
(which ended up being part of why I quit a PhD program about 4 years after
that talk with Gil Strang and started working instead).

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espeed
Here's the link for his upcoming book and new MIT course videos that be will
posted online in a few weeks:

 _Linear Algebra and Learning from Data_

[http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/](http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/)

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tmp_user_ini
Any news on the release of the book? Where to buy and when? much appreciated.

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espeed
The book is "expected to appear in December 2018" [1] (send an email to the
address located on the cover page below to get updates / early
notification)...

[1]
[http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/dsla_dlnn.pdf](http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/dsla_dlnn.pdf)

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tmp_user_ini
Thank you!

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revision17
His linear algebra video lectures from 1999 are fantastic:
[https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-
algebra...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-
spring-2010/video-lectures/)

I used them ~2006 when I was college. Someone I know who just graduated this
year in mechanical engineering also found and used them independently from me.

In my social circles, we've always talked about Gilbert Strang as the best
math professor who never actually worked at the university we went to.

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twtw
> we've always talked about Gilbert Strang as the best math professor who
> never actually worked at the university we went to.

I very much relate to this. I've never attended the same school of any of my
favorite professors.

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latenightcoding
Forever grateful to this man. 18.06 is my all time favorite online course,
it's hard to beleive it was recorded so many years ago.

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jbd28
Was so grateful that my linear algebra professor at Drexel back in 2004
managed to get Strang, the author of our textbook, to take Amtrak down to
Philadelphia for a guest lecture. Learned more that day than any other, and
gladly waited after class to have him autograph my textbook!

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brutus1213
I remember watching the MIT OCW videos for linear algebra and thinking ...
this guy came to the Earth to teach this subject. Amazing intuition.

EDIT: Makes me wonder .. what are other examples of teachers who teach their
subject soooo well.

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skywal_l
> this guy came to the Earth to teach this subject

Exactly that!

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amelius
I wish he would do an online course on advanced stuff like presented in Golub
and van Loan.

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mishurov
He's a great teacher but I prefer to see linear algebra from the point of view
of linear maps/operators/transformations and matrices as their
representations. His approach goes rather from matrix arithmetic as far as I
know.

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copperx
Is there an online course that covers linear algebra in that way?

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losvedir
Gil Strang taught 18.06, the more calculation-focused and elementary version
of linear algebra, when I was at MIT. The approach mentioned by the OP was
what was taken in the more theoretical version, 18.701. I think that class has
notes and lectures on OCW.

