While in university I took linear algebra and didn't understand much of it, especially on a deeper level. Then I stumbled upon Gilbert Strang's linear algebra lectures and watched them... After watching his explanations I got all of it and actually understood things at a much higher level. It was a sweet revelation and today I find linear algebra beautiful. I highly recommend watching his linear algebra lectures: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra-...

Edit: I also find linear algebra to be useful and much more important for programming/CS than calculus, especially for implementing various ranking algorithms (e.g. Google's PageRank algorithm is mostly rooted in linear algebra).