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Why Gilbert Strang’s Linear Algebra is Still The Best Book On the Subject
And why you should learn linear algebra in this day and age
A few days ago, I posted on X about why linear algebra is the most important math you need to learn.
And I genuinely feel that Linear algebra is one of the pillars of modern computation.
On a side note, have you ever cracked open a math textbook and felt your eyes glaze over before the end of page one? That’s the feeling Gilbert Strang seems to anticipate — and side-steps — in his Introduction to Linear Algebra.
I first came across this book during my undergrad days (I left the book in Nepal though), and it turned out as one of my most favourite textbooks of all time. It’s not that Strang skims over the deep stuff; he’ll absolutely lead you into the rich core of vector spaces and matrices.
But then somehow, he does it in a way that feels like you’re having a friendly chat, not slogging through a desert of dry theorems. There’re a few more reasons why I think…