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Comment by codesushi42 | Hacker News Reader

I would disagree about the gamedev book reference, unless you are referring to the real basics of linear algebra.

The really important concepts for ML are least squares, eigenvalues and vectors, and SVD. Those concepts are not very relevant to game programming.

Well, least squares can be solved with projection, which is relevant for converting between coordinate spaces. But game dev isn't going to give you that intuition.

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I believe the person you're replying to was attempting to help people like me, who haven't had a math lesson since leaving high school (in my case over 16 years ago) and whose level of math is roughly "You want me to multiply something? Let me get my phone."

So while the book in question might not be the best resource, it probably is a better starting point than the linked doc.

I wish someone would put together the "basic math" resource for people like that. I didn't do any maths beyond 16. I was an maths idiot at school (me? the teacher? I dunno) but since then I've worked 20 years in programming and had to learn more and more maths just to make a living. However, my maths is a rickety hodge-podge house, with no real foundations. I can't be a total idiot, because I've done some decent work in distributed systems, even research in CRDTs (which made me learn some math) but still, I'd love a self-study plan that took me from 16 to today with the _real basics_.

Thanks for your comment, it made me feel less alone.

I've just finished the coursera's Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra (https://www.coursera.org/learn/linear-algebra-machine-learni...) and I'd say its very good for beginners

Sometimes I feel doing a refresher in basic algebra and geometry/trig...

I've had the same thoughts before. 'Basic Mathematics' by Serge Lang helped me a lot.

Such a thing exists https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A714C94D40392AB though he's using nonstandard notation it doesn't matter. His lectures are like learning lisp to better understand programming in general but for math. Combine them with a Sheldon Axler college algebra text or something.

Honestly, this is what Khan Academy is. Start at high school algebra and work your way up the skill tree. There is no shortcut though, so you won't find a single book that will teach you undergraduate level maths in a week.

I needed to take a math refresher when I entered college. This was the textbook we used, highly recommended:

https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/college-algebra...

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