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Hello everyone. Author here. I’ll be happy to address any questions you may have about the book.
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I’m very tempted to pick this up, just to make sure I’m across everything, but I’d be interested to see some reviews of the author’s work - I can’t find any reviews other than from three years ago on HN, and they’re not the most promising.
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I’m hoping readers will contribute reviews on amazon as for the first book. Goodreads gives it a 4.3/5.
In the meantime here are some snippets from feedback I’ve received by email:
- I bought your ebook for a linear systems engineering class last year. It was fantastic and actually EXPLAINED the concepts in a way that gives a strong intuitive understanding. I was able to get an A+ thanks to your great book. So many thanks for your efforts.
- It is a delight to read.
- Your linear algebra book is truly beautiful. […] I can see that you’ve spent a lot of time developing it. […] I can remember that learning linear algebra for the first time was a joyful experience for me, and when skimming your book […] to relive some of those feelings.
- I have been looking for learning materials which would meet my needs with limited success. When I reviewed the sample pages of your books, I quickly realized that I had stumbled on a mother lode.
- Thank you for writing an awesome book. I’m working through it. :)
- It’s dense, but in a good way, has useful and intuitive explanations, and contains all necessary formulas. It will be good reference book also.
- Well done. Thanks for this unique perspective on linear algebra.
- I have read half this book so far and everything has been crystal clear.
- An outstanding textbook for any course involving Linear Algebra. I’ve referenced this book in multiple big data courses when I’ve needed a deeper understanding of the material.
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No Bullshit Guide to Linear Algebra, because I’ve realised not knowing linear algebra is the thing holding me back the most for my personal goals lately.
I liked Axler’s “Linear Algebra Done Right”. I am still undergrad student, but felt like I could learn more, so I found this book really appealing. But it could be too academic and kinda “dry” if you have finished with college long ago.
I never took the class in school, and dropped out of college; text books are pretty hit-or-miss for me. I’ve tried a lot of resources to learn, though. My first intro was a crash course in an ML class on Coursera, and I’ve tried Shilov’s Linear Algebra, a linear algebra refresher course on Udacity (learn it by programming), and the Khan Academy videos, and a few other books. This book clicks, and also has a math refresher so you can relearn high school math first (which was over a decade ago for me). The thing that really sold it for me was it has lots of example problems and all the answers. I’ve taken the approach of working all problems and going back when I get one wrong to figure out where it went wrong, essentially using the answers as a unit test for my thinking.
I have Linear Algebra Done Right on my bookshelf. It is quite good, a bit dry, and I wish I’d had it as the core of a class in university. The No Bullshit Guide to Linear Algebra looks like it might be a good reference with a bit more spice and entertainment to it.
Is it good? Linear Algebra came up in a job interview recently and it stumped me; it’s amazing how much you can forget if you don’t keep using it.
See my response in the other thread for why I like it. The writing style can be a bit off-putting at times, though; I just work through that because the rest of it really makes sense to me.
Another thing I forgot to mention, you can get laminated cheat sheets that summarize things. I picked up one when I grabbed a probstats cheat sheet, looks like it’ll be helpful later on.
Hi kyle, thx for the plug! Be sure to check out the jupyter notebooks that come with the book: https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks The chapter numbers are a bit off (you need to s/n/n-1/g), but you can take a look to see examples of the
SymPycommands—it’s an awesome tool for learning if you feel comfortable with code.For everyone else interested in the book, check out the preview here: https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSguide2LA_preview.pdf or if you don’t have that much time, there is also a four-pager you can print an read on your next coffee break: https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/linear_algebra_in_4_pages.pdf
Linear algebra is very powerful stuff!