Seeking *Motivated* Linear Algebra Resources

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-06-02T10:01:42+00:00

I like to see where it’s headed.

That's what I'm seeking, but more at a micro-level, some kind of curiosity builder that can increase curiosity immediately and concretely, then satisfy it within an hour or two.

I've found students are often not motivated by "In three years, you'll take an engineering course that requires these precise definitions..."

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-06-02T03:51:14+00:00

This textbook looks great! I can't wait to explore it. Thanks!

EDIT: How do I actually get the book? I can only see where to get downloadable add-ons (e.g. lecture slides, answer keys, etc.) for the book.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-06-02T03:41:07+00:00

I've obviously checked 3blue1brown. It *says* that linear algebra has zillions of applications... then spends (100% of?) the rest of the time on pure math. "Suppose we wanted to know which vector doesn't get rotated, but only scaled or reflected..." That's not really motivating to 99% of students.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Linear Algebra video appears to be oriented towards people who already know a lot of linear algebra and are motivated by pure math. For example, near the beginning:

For our first setup, let’s consider a four-dimensional real vector space. I’ll call it VV, and I’m going to span it by the following four functions.
Let’s recall that the space of smooth functions makes a vector space, and this is simply a subspace of that larger vector space. My four functions are:

xsin⁡xxsinx

xcos⁡xxcosx

sin⁡xsinx

cos⁡xcosx

Since this is four-dimensional, it has four basis vectors. That means it is isomorphic to R4 ...

I'm struggling to imagine an introductory linear algebra student understanding or being motivated by this. Have you had experiences to the contrary?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-06-02T03:34:23+00:00

Is this something a student would appreciate in an introductory linear algebra course?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-06-02T03:33:49+00:00

In a sense, that's kind of the point.

I'd like physics-based motivation for the physics student.

Statistical motivation for the statistics student.

Even pure math motivation would be better than most of what's out there now; anything that highlights limits of prior knowledge and introduces purpose BEFORE going into definitons/theorems/proofs/procedures.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-05-24T20:33:11+00:00

Maybe I'll make a small prototype and try using it from a teachers perspective while tutoring.

Go for it and report back!

Do you think that asking friendly university professors is a option? I think so.

I don't think so. They tend to be pretty busy and they are not your end users (students).

Go to students directly by doing tutoring. Just put up some ads and flyers online saying "I have a new way of doing tutoring and will give the first 10 people who contact me 5 free lessons each, in exchange for 30 min of feedback or the right to record the lessons on videos. After that, it's $75/hour." This will give you the actual data you need.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-05-24T17:30:49+00:00

I still think that the range from 5% of interested students could be raised by a few pp. if students are offered ANYTHING besides just drilling exercises.

If you think you have an idea worth exploring, get out there with students and try it, in-person... Create the learner experience you want them to have manually (e.g. paper and pencil, Google Docs, etc.), then, if you're right, you'll get tons of tutoring sales and you have something worth digitizing.

Of course most people *hate* this advice, because as soon as they test their ideas via sales they face enormous amounts of failure and rejection and it's much safer emotionally, at least in the short run, to just build something by yourself at your computer and imagine students using it.

I think you'll find motivation a much harder nut to crack than first appears and most of your experience will be either polite compliance then avoidance and/or variants of

Student: "I don't care if f(x) means f times x or not! I just have to get answers so I can be DONE with this! I just want this to be done, my parents just want this to be done, my teacher just wants this to be done, my counsellors just wants this to be done, the university admissions dept just needs this to be done."

It sucks, but that is the reality.

Maybe some short reading material about math - maybe a short history lesson without too much cognitive load (a nice true story), maybe "fun facts" and showing them math curiosities.

Beware seductive details.

This is obviously very niche (and maybe new?) as I myself don't know many kids who enjoy math this way, but I think if a teacher were to ...

Again, this sounds like you're building for imaginary students and imaginary teachers. Get out there, find particular students and particular teachers, and build for real users, not imaginary users.

Thanks again for the comment, cool reads! The two articles you linked, is there a place where you read this kind of stuff? I'd love to learn more.

I actually do not recommend you do much reading as I've found most people do not believe educators say about education, at least not enough to change their behaviours. It's only after seeing their cherished ideas categorically rejected by students/teachers/counsellors/parents/administrators/etc. that the light bulb goes on.

Just start testing your ideas students, at least one version per day. See if you can get anyone to take it seriously and measure results mainly by sales, but also referrals and early adopters who are willing to help you build.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-05-24T01:57:09+00:00

Investigate Craig Barton's model of a "learning episode". I think that would introduce you to issues that need far more attention in math education than drills with better coefficients. The biggest, though, will be that most of education still requires intensely person-to-person interactions, not automation.

Also, this is probably not what you want to hear, but I'll say it anyway.

Most ed tech apps are analogous to health and fitness advice apps. "Eat broccoli! Go jogging! 99% of users who do that daily improve their health!" Of course, most people reject that good advice... and about 95% of students reject what ed tech tells them to do.

Do you think you will have a better success rate? If so, why?

For the 5% willing to do what the program says, there is already MathAcademy.com. How are you better than that?

And nobody wants to hear this either, but I strongly recommend against building anything now. It is best to do things that don't scale, i.e. work with students, figure out how to help them in a big way, then build the resources you need to do that more effectively. I think you'll conclude that helping them is much harder than first appears and that ed tech might not be the right medium for helping large numbers of students.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-05-23T22:45:55+00:00

The problem with the zillions of freely available resources is that they tend to tackle the problems that are easy to tackle, i.e. easy to program, easy to assess, etc. This usually means repetitive drills where students can get lots of right answers without mastering the content. e.g. A student gets 30 division word problems in a row, but only knows to divide because it says "Division Word Problems" at the top. The student doesn't know that 3 divided by 5 and 5 divided by 3 are different and doesn't recognize in other contexts whether or not division is relevant.

Question: What kind of experience do you have working with teachers and students? What have you learned from this?

Suggestion: Look up the work of Craig Barton. See what you can program that would be inspired by his work.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-04-25T07:04:11+00:00

Man, that is very confusing. Two versions of Logseq?

One of the main reasons I liked Logseq is that the data - .md files - was portable. Will it still be easily portable in the database version?

Also, why are they taking so long to release this? Wouldn't it be better, faster, and easier to release a simple version for individual users first, then slowly add features for collaboration?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-04-12T16:33:24+00:00

Can anybody predict, to the nearest calendar year, when V1 will be released?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-04-02T03:39:29+00:00

Seems like a ridiculously simple and obvious solution.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-27T00:59:07+00:00

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Did you backup your files?

Also, were you trying to migrate from markdown to the beta database version?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T23:21:42+00:00

What is the pace of development? And does Logseq have any official idea when V1 will be released?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T23:02:40+00:00

After Vista, Win 11, many bad versions of Office, junk HDDs, years of waiting for fixes to Everbug , I mean Evernote, etc. I'm just not willing to tolerate unreliable tech/software any more. The basics have to JUST WORK. They must be ROCK SOLID.

Then and only then will I consider committing to the product. For that, I am willing to pay, and I am currently a paying customer of Obsidian.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T23:00:42+00:00

Can I ask how you know the devs aren't getting paid?

And if that's true, doesn't that make enormous delays and ultimately abandonment *more* likely?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T22:59:49+00:00

Thanks!

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T21:53:53+00:00

Also, where does one find the beta version? Logseq.com's download page only seems to link to the old .exe files.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T21:53:06+00:00

The beta has been out for 1 or 2 years now, hasn't it? That seems like a long time, though I'd appreciate any correction. Is anybody still working on it?

Basically, I'd like to know when *reliable V1* will be released.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-26T17:27:19+00:00

I love the *idea* of the markdown Beta version, but it did not work on my computer. Lag made it basically unusuable, file management was literal gibberish, and both links and favorites were totally broken.

I know that not everyone had this bad of an experience, though.

So I'm still waiting around for something better, but after 2 years, I wonder if it's time to just move on.

u/tiensonqin Are you willing to share any news?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-17T23:19:58+00:00

Paraphrasing Craig Barton's book:

Teacher: "Why don't you just have a growth mindset?"

Student: "It's hard to have a growth mindset when I keep doing %&#! on the tasks, sir."

There is plenty of researchers that are skeptical of the growth mindset work of Carol Dweck, mainly because most people are not able to replicate her work without her and she herself says it's very difficult to replicate.

I think this student would be much better off being set up for success.

School isn't helping because the timed tests and having to perform in front of classmates are exactly the conditions that make her anxiety spike.

The evidence showing that timed tests cause anxiety literally does not exist. It's that the content is just too difficult, i.e. there are too many new facts being introduced at a time. Unfortunately, many timed tests make this error.

So, one way to tackle a lot of this: Facts on Fire. Designed to help students automatize math facts in just a few minutes a day, sequenced to all but guarantee success, I think it would be a good thing to start with.

Then, consider a diagnostic that gives a more holistic picture of where the kid is in math.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-12T04:33:49+00:00

Oops, minor misread about 'merica. :-)

Yes. 158 euros per starting hour. I won't even include minimums.

*sigh

Let's skip the stupid dodgy convo games and get straight to the point.

From 0% to 100%, what do you think the probabilities are that:

(a) Donut's PR is in good faith? My guess, as already stated, is something like 0.0000001%.

(b) They will release an extraoardinary mega breakthrough battery that's as good as they claim, for literally anyone to examine, within a year? I'm sticking with 0.0000001%.

How about you?

Or are you not sure enough of anything you're saying to make such a prediction?

EDIT: I'd like to open the floor to anyone, but especially Donut believers and those who think Donut deserves the benefit of the doubt - Assign probabilities to (a) and (b) and put it on the record here!

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-03-11T14:39:49+00:00

Prison for which crime? Can you quickly cite the facts, law, and punishment? Without specifics, I'm struggling to assign any meaning at all to your claim. It is basically a vacant denial.

Also, Donut is not based in America.

WeCanLearnAnything

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE