{"id":353,"date":"2014-02-24T00:46:58","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T05:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/?p=353"},"modified":"2017-01-14T00:06:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T05:06:15","slug":"no-bullshit-guide-to-linear-algebra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/no-bullshit-guide-to-linear-algebra\/","title":{"rendered":"No bullshit guide to linear algebra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m happy to announce the <a href=\"https:\/\/minireference.com\/static\/excerpts\/noBSguide2LA_preview.pdf\">No bullshit guide to linear algebra<\/a>\u00a0(<span title=\"I've still got to finish the Applications section---Im still collecting cool examples of applications of liner algebra, but it not stuff that will be on the exam\">student edition)<\/span> is ready: <a href=\"https:\/\/gum.co\/noBSLA\">gum.co\/noBSLA<\/a>. The core chapters&#8212;the stuff that shows up on exams are done. If you have a linear exam coming up, we&#8217;ve got what you need.<\/p>\n<p>For the price of a case of beer, you could have an understanding of linear algebra.<\/p>\n<p><span title=\"I sometimes ask myself this very question... Shouldn't I GFLD licence the material\">Now if you&#8217;re a cheapo like me, you&#8217;ll say &#8220;why the hell do I need to give you money, when there are free books out there?&#8221;<\/span> I understand you. Perhaps you&#8217;d like this free tutorial: <a href=\"http:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/linear-algebra-tutorial\/\">LA<\/a>. See also\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cnd.mcgill.ca\/~ivan\/miniref\/mech_in_7_pages.pdf\">MECH<\/a>.\u00a0By reading these short tutorials, I hope to convince you that synthesis of information (i.e. the order of the concepts and choosing an appropriate level of detail) is possible and desirable. Synthesis helps with understanding. If a subject can be summarized in just a few pages, then a full textbook on the subject shouldn&#8217;t be bigger than a couple hundred pages, including prerequisites. I call this &#8220;information distillation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 1000pp+ textbooks are a scam. Don&#8217;t be duped. Get the <a title=\"In short, we could say linear algebra is about vectors and matrices. Vectors are arrows in space, and the multiplication of a matrix by a vector represents a linear transformations of the vector --- a geometrical transformation of the arrow\" href=\"https:\/\/gum.co\/noBSLA\">No bullshit guide to linear algebra<\/a>. It&#8217;s 1\/10<sup>th<\/sup> the price,\u00a01\/2 the size, and 3 times better than a mainstream textbook. \u00a0In the news: [<a title=\"Reaction on hacker news on the 4 page tutorial on linear algebra\" href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=6882107\">HN1<\/a>],\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=7283333\">HN2<\/a>].\u00a0The price is 50% OFF until April 1<sup>st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>BTW, this is the second book in the &#8220;No bullshit&#8221; series. The <a href=\"http:\/\/minireference.com\/\">No bullshit guide to math and physics<\/a> is the first. It covers high school math, mechanics, differential calculus, \u00a0and integral calculus in 383 pages. You should definitely check it if you&#8217;re taking one of these classes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m happy to announce the No bullshit guide to linear algebra\u00a0(student edition) is ready: gum.co\/noBSLA. The core chapters&#8212;the stuff that shows up on exams are done. If you have a linear exam coming up, we&#8217;ve got what you need. For the price of a case of beer, you could have an understanding of linear algebra. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minireference.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}