Two YouTube math channels. I have a degree from 2012 before switching to software; now I’m on a path to becoming a schoolteacher as a 2nd career. Using YouTube as a way to deliberately practice teaching & refreshing skill.

“Math Can Be A Hobby”, lecture series based on Serge Lang’s Basic Mathematics. Unexpected breakout success, 350k+ views on 1st video and rising. https://youtube.com/@MathCanBeAHobby

“jcpractices math”, a livestream where I share my daily-ish study sessions, thinking out loud with iPad on screen. Emphasis on algebra and number theory. https://youtube.com/@jcpracticesmath

Not sure when this was written, but I believe I found it ~3 weeks ago (pre-FLT and NS announcements)

Not mine - stumbled across this short story about a week ago. Not sure when it was written, but it was before Anthropic’s FLT announcement.

+1 I loved FIS for my Advanced Linear Algebra class

As a math educator, I strongly dislike both Strang and Axler for a 1st course. I've heard great things about Strang's lectures, but his book is disorganized and too heavy on computation. Axler's book is wonderful, but as explicitly stated on the back cover, it's designed for a 2nd course and primarily aimed at math majors.

I recommend and teach my YouTube Live series out of Fraleigh [1], but unfortunately it's out of print. Lay seems to be a good modern alternative.

[1] https://linear.mathcanbeahobby.com

Apparently, it's on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/linearalgebra0000fral/

Appears only the front-matter of the book is available on IA (limited preview); the content was omitted.

Strang's OCW lectures are fantastic. His voice rings "combinations of columns" in my head almost ten years later whenever I do a matrix or matrix-vector multiply on paper. I found the textbook was a good accompaniment for the lecture course, but maybe not a good book to use on its own for self-study. (IIRC, when following the lectures, you jump around the chapters a bit out of order [or, you read the chapters non-linearly]. So the disorganized thing may be true.)

I agree Strang is awful, the department I taught in used Fraleigh/Lay in the past. I used a book by A.O. Morris.

We used Lay as well, it's still behind me on the shelf there. I haven't done much comparison but it would be interesting to revisit these and see if I can make them stick better. Everything always feels familiar but I wouldn't really be able to use or explain many of the techniques given e.g. a blank piece of paper.

agree, tried both and they are hard as a starter.

Hard disagree. Linear algebra is one of the easiest topics in mathematics. In my experience, 3Blue1Brown videos are a great simple introduction. Beyond that, Kostrikin’s books.

What do you think of the other Fraleigh books?

Neat! It feels like bridging the gap between infinitesimals intuition and epsilon-delta formalism. I wonder whether this approach could make a 1st course more rigorous, and whether that would be a good thing.

I have a hard time remembering this. But there’s also right-click, then Option to show secondary options (Copy becomes Move)

https://mujo.app I’ve been building a minimalist productivity app for musicians. Mujo adds time tracking, task management, notes and other “practice journal” tools into a simple metronome interface. Been hacking at the iOS version for a while, and starting to think about Android.

I’m sad to see this - I used to binge their videos a few years back. As someone who discovered and fell in love with classical music late in life (~26), and is now a hobbyist content creator [1] they were a terrific bridge into learning about orchestral instruments that I don’t play.

I agree with others that this seems like an attempt to pivot to “music as a higher art”, e.g. the rumored Two Set Academy, like a Tonebase competitor. Which is an absolute shame, because I think they did wonders to challenge that status quo and make classical music fun.

[1] Shameless, but if anyone is curious about an adult hobbyist learning classical guitar, I’m livestreaming almost daily: https://youtube.com/jcpractices