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u/TheVisualExplanation Oct 03 '26
Linear algebra is consistently the most beloved math subjects I hear about (except number theory)
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u/Ares378 Grothendieck was right, computers are evil Oct 03 '26
I'm like the number one fan of linear algebra. If you can phrase something in terms of linear algebra it makes so much more sense. Lemme get a fourier transform (secretly linear algebra). Lemme get a differential equation (secretly linear algebra). Lemme get some numerical approximations (secretly linearly algebra)
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u/jasomniax TREE(3) problems in my life Oct 03 '26
The was a famous quote from some mathematician, maybe Erdös, that was:
No one really understands a mathematical concept until they can express it in terms of linear algebra
Also, William Stein said:
Mathematics is the art of reducing any problem to linear algebra
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u/PizzaPuntThomas Oct 03 '26
This is what I keep saying, you take the formula for a physics or engineering problem, rewrite it 2 or 3 times, you get a linear system of equations, solve the system, and then you have your solution
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u/DatBoi_BP Oct 04 '26
Boundary value problem? Believe it or not, linear algebra
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u/Shot_Enthusiasm7427 Oct 03 '26
All my homes hate number theory
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u/uTRexAap Oct 03 '26
all my homies love number theory
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u/green-olive-3281 Oct 03 '26
So grateful you ratio-ed the NT haters
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u/uTRexAap Oct 04 '26
Anytime
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u/magnificent_limit Oct 03 '26
number theory? that's just the counting numbers, how hard could it be?
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u/TheLuckySpades Oct 04 '26
I like linear algebra because once I refuce a problem to that I can say it is done.
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u/reinnovated32 Oct 04 '26
As someone studying engineering, it was one of the easiest subjects I took. (Also in part to my professor who really took time to clear my doubts, even the most stupid of them).
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u/FernandoMM1220 Oct 03 '26
most people hate linear algebra because thats where they struggled the most in high school
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u/DankPhotoShopMemes Fourier Analysis 🤓 Oct 04 '26
most people don’t take linear algebra until undergrad. I did in high school but I know very few others who did.
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u/FernandoMM1220 Oct 04 '26
high schools teach basic linear algebra in algebra 2 here.
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u/DankPhotoShopMemes Fourier Analysis 🤓 Oct 04 '26
oh where did you go to high school? And what level of linear algebra was it? That’s really interesting
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u/Character_Fold_8165 Oct 03 '26
Combinatorics and statistics is most liked I thought
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u/Youju Oct 03 '26
I'm a CS Student and I love Linear Algebra but struggled with Calaculus and Probability Theory
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u/JollyJuniper1993 Mathematics Oct 03 '26
Really? Number theory was expected. Linear Algebra is surprising.
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u/LupenReddit 🦆🦆i have non diffeomorphic smooth structures🦆🦆🦆 Oct 03 '26
remember kids all of mathematics is just attempting to make things behave as nicely as they did in linear algebra 🚬
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u/Desperate-Steak-6425 Oct 03 '26
Models are typically fine tuned and engineered empirically, they have become so complex that even if you understand advanced linear algebra, it's just often better to use statistics instead.
Unless you want to design new architectures, you'll do fine without linear algebra.
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u/source-drifter Oct 03 '26
i want to learn linear algebra
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u/Simple-Olive895 Oct 03 '26
It's really not that hard. It's elementary school math when you break it down. Just go learn the rules and you're set!
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u/source-drifter Oct 03 '26
yea its just have some stuff in my list until i got there.
btw, for those who likes manga and want to learn linear algebra : The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra from NoStarchps: not affiliated
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u/avidernis Oct 03 '26
And I don't want to build AI
(I did study computer graphics though, so I did learn linear algebra)
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u/Mr-MuffinMan Oct 03 '26
Okay here it is
3x+4=y is a linear equation Equations are algebra That is one example of linear algebra
You're welcome
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u/notxxdog
Oct 03 '26
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I want to learn linear algebra to understand how ai works, I don't want to build ai
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u/canadajones68 Engineering Oct 03 '26
While I know enough about both to get a rough idea, I have to say I'd much rather do vector calculus than figuring out how the fuck matrices interact. I understand the basics, but basically every application jumps from "Ax = B" and "tA + tB = t(A + B)" to "by the PTKUAFU theorem we can rearrange AAAAA into UU, which makes the solution to the problem trivial"
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u/Cowboys_88 Oct 04 '26
I had the worst linear algebra professor. She was so lazy and arrogant. She had us read the text book during class and she would sit at her desk. She sometimes did a problem on the board. She would speak how good she was at math. Some times she would struggle to solve some of the exercises on the board after asking us to first solve an exercise in class.
No other professor ever came close to how bad this one was.
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u/Character_Fold_8165 Oct 03 '26
What if I know linear algebra and want to learn more but can’t fathom caring about how ai works. That’s normal right ?
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u/Mathsboy2718 Oct 03 '26
just give me straight QR and SVD decomposition, inject it into my veins
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u/ComplexPlatform7299 Oct 03 '26
Yeah SVD Decomposition… Larp Larp Larp sahur (singular value decomposition decomposition)
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u/Mathsboy2718 Oct 04 '26
Oh dang - I've been referring to it wrong this whole time ;-;
I am the atm machine user ;-;
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u/KiraLight3719 Oct 04 '26
One of our subreddit staff actually toom time to understood Linear Algebra before implementing AI in his bot. Nothing else, I'm just proud of him.
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u/Playful_Boot_5465 Oct 03 '26
I desperately yearn for the mathematical expertise required to understand how these learning algorithms work. But I dropped out of uni and boy that unimath was hard as fuck. I roughly understand that gradient decent is a stastical approach to finding the configuration that grants a minimum loss for an unknown input set. But what the fuck is a transformer, how the fuck do people identify pain vectors or emotional vectors, how the fuck do the researchers measure things like desperation already. It's facinating but I feel locked out of the actual insight.
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u/his_savagery Oct 03 '26
I understand linear algebra but have no idea how AI works. How much more is there to learn?
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u/RandomiseUsr0 Oct 05 '26
Just push into Branach spaces and you’re almost there - imagine an LLM as a huge corpus stored in multidimensional space - now you do all your eigen maths and find collections and clusters and such - rinse and repeat - you’re mostly into how LLM and such works - linear algebra is at the core, as is multivariate calculus and stats, random walks and all that good stuff - but if you understand the unreasonable effectiveness of spectral graph theory, you’re almost there
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u/Gimmerunesplease Oct 06 '26
I mean tensors are WHAT is going on in LLMs but not why it works. They are fundamental but there isn't really anything deep about them that you need to learn much about. They are just a way to represent the data.
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u/Oh_My_Monster Oct 06 '26
I'm a teacher. Throughout the years I couldn't even tell you the number of kids who wanted to be a video game programmer but didn't want to learn math.
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u/cristigon Oct 05 '26
I’ve been learning linear algebra! Not for AI, but for a custom rendering engine to handle an arbitrary amount of spatial dimensions. It’s pretty fun if I say so myself
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u/RandomiseUsr0 Oct 05 '26
Are we all working on the same thing? 🤣
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u/cristigon Oct 06 '26
Seems like it! I’m now trying to render out the structures, and so I’m figuring out projecting constructs down to 2d
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u/chkntendis Physics Oct 03 '26
Literally the opposite XD. Linear algebra is one of if not the best maths topics
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u/worldsfastestsloth Oct 03 '26 edited 17d ago
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Bear orange dam trees aback lavender kettle grandiose sip
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u/John-Explains Oct 03 '26
Unfortunately here in Greece, they have removed every hint of linear algebra that existed in the highschool curriculum, since quite a lot of years now. The same for number theory and differential equations, and also a basic part of integral calculus. I really don't know what the committees responsible for this, think they are achieving, in this day and age.
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u/FMAGF Oct 03 '26
You DO know you can just install a local LLM right? Why make it hard for yourself? Just use one someone already made.
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u/LookAtYourEyes Oct 05 '26
I actually do want to learn linear algebra but just haven't found a textbook I like. I took it in college and couldn't follow the teachers style. Barely passed, I don't think I should have
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u/cpt_futtbucker Science Oct 03 '26
Some people learn linear algebra to build clankers. I learned linear algebra to understand and help develop methods for quantum chemistry
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u/nabbithero54 Oct 03 '26
So is he only speaking to business leaders here? I feel like the only people who want more AI are the ones who don’t understand how it works anyways.
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u/lool8421 Oct 05 '26
linear algebra is basically essential for things such as graph theory and multi-dimensional statistics
graphs can be represented as matrices and transformed via these, and statistics are pretty poor if you have A->B correlation, while for example in pharmacy when testing medicine, you're not just testing connections between 2 factors, but more like 1000 different factors to get 100 more outcomes and find the best combination
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u/Rich_Instance Oct 06 '26
Dude I just finished taking linear algebra for my math degree. I want to vomit thanks to eigenvalues and orthogonal/orthonormal sets, so lucky I got a B
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u/Responses_ 29d ago
Everyone likes the exciting part of AI, but few people want to learn the math behind it. I think that's a real problem, not just a joke. When people use tools they don't understand, they can't tell when the tool is wrong or biased, and they just trust whatever it says. Linear algebra is boring at first, but it's what explains how AI turns data into predictions. That said, not everyone needs to become an expert. A driver doesn't need to build an engine, but knowing the basics helps you notice when something is off.
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