Lex Fridman Podcast: Gilbert Strang: Linear Algebra, Deep Learning, Teaching, and MIT OpenCourseWare

Gilbert Strang is a professor of mathematics at MIT and perhaps one of the most famous and impactful teachers of math in the world. His MIT OpenCourseWare lectures on linear algebra have been viewed millions of times.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction

03:45 – Math rockstar

05:10 – MIT OpenCourseWare

07:29 – Four Fundamental Subspaces of Linear Algebra

13:11 – Linear Algebra vs Calculus

15:03 – Singular value decomposition

19:47 – Why people like math

23:38 – Teaching by example

25:04 – Andrew Yang

26:46 – Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

29:21 – Deep learning

37:28 – Theory vs application

38:54 – Open problems in mathematics

39:00 – Linear algebra as a subfield of mathematics

41:52 – Favorite matrix

46:19 – Advice for students on their journey through math

47:37 – Looking back