I’m hard at work on my Applied Linear Algebra Fundamentals textbook project and my Jeff Anderson YouTube channel. In this post, I share some fun updates from the last two months of effort.
I’ll begin with a quick review of past work. For folks that haven’t been following along with my work, please take a look at the following posts:
If your new to these updates, I would read them in that order (earliest one first followed by the more recent ones next). Since those posts, I have focused my energy on a few big projects.
Submit Linear Algebraic Nodal Analysis for Publication
First, it looks like my Linear Algebraic Nodal Analysis paper will be accepted for publication soon. For a copy of that paper, please click on the following link:
I’m very happy to report that my co-author on that paper is a previous Foothill student from my Engr 11 course in winter quarter 2022.
That paper presents two big ideas. In the introduction (pages 1 – 5), I highlight a lot of insightful research and references that point to an urgent need for drastic changes in the way we teach STEM classes in college. The rest of the paper introduces a new version of a very popular algorithm. I named the version I wrote the “linear algebraic nodal analysis (LANA) algorithm.” LANA is designed to enhance and replace the classical nodal analysis algorithm that is taught in almost every single introductory course in circuit analysis.
I am currently putting together a team of four of my hardest working students to turn this paper into a wikipedia article that I hope to publish by the end of spring quarter 2024. This wikipedia article will be titled Linear Algebra Nodal Analysis. I will ask our team to make explicit links on the other two wikipedia articles that relate to this work including the classical nodal analysis and modified nodal analysis wiki pages. I’m so excited to work with these students. How cool is it to think that community college students will be authoring a wikipedia article on a algorithm that can be used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world?
Improve the design of http://www.appliedlinearalgebra.com
Since my last update, I changed the structure of my project support page at www.appliedlinearalgebra.com. That page now has a streamlined navigation bar at the top that includes only three tabs including pointers to the “ALAF Textbook”, “Labs”, and “About” pages. On the homepage, I am starting to build the infrastructure I need to support the entire textbook project, upload new versions of each section, and provide other support resources for interested students, teachers, readers, and fans.
Enhance my ALAF Content
Over the last two months, I have dedicated lots of deep focus to improve my Applied Linear Algebra Fundamentals textbook content. I am taking this project slowly because I’m doing more than just writing. I’m also building infrastructure for a very large textbook project that I hope to be working on for the next 10 – 15 years. Below are a few changes I have made:
Improve my Table of Contents
I completely re-wrote my proposed Table of Contents. You can access my most recent draft below:
I will be developing each individual section of this textbook one at a time as a stand alone LaTeX document. Many years from now, if I am lucky, I will come back to compile a single document that includes all sections compiled together. This new Table of Contents document is hard coded (meaning that I type each entry out by hand) and excludes references to page numbers. This structure means I have significant control over the structure, which I believe is going to be quite helpful in the coming years as I hone my vision and continue to produce content.
Continue to Edit Introduction to Permutations
My first release for the next phase of my writing and YouTube career will be the Introduction to Permutations lesson that I have been working on for many months. Below is a link to my most recent draft of this material:
I still have a lot more editing work to do to clean up that content. One big project I’m working on at the moment is to create a library of every single figure, example, definition, theorem, and formula that I use in that work, including the LaTeX labels, so that I have a central location to track all the content in each section. Later in my life, I hope to transform this into the index for my larger textbook and to create references between Lessons so that interested readers can navigate between content easily. I am thinking about creating a self-published version of this work. If I do this, this library and index may be very useful for the reader to navigate through the entire work to find specific content.
Create a Foundation for an Errata System
Because I am choosing not to sell this content to a publisher, I have to do a lot more work than other authors who use publishing companies to support their work. Publishing companies often pay for a full-time editing staff who engage with the author about how to edit and improve their work. I do not have that type of paid support.
However, I have been very touched and inspired by a small but growing group of people who are interested in my work and willing to edit. After having received feedback from some of these folks on my current writing project to produce my Introduction to Permutations lesson, I decided to create an improved mechanism to make it easier for others to give me feedback. Take a look at my most recent version of my Introduction to Permutations lesson:
For folks who have seen my previous work, you’ll notice a few things. First, the layout of each page looks different. I no longer have a different layout for recto and verso pages. Instead, every page has the same structure. I am sad to say that I will no longer be using margin diagrams. However, by sacrificing my ability to use margin diagrams (at least for now), I am hoping to create a powerful system so that readers can report errata.
You might also notice that I have placed line numbers along the edges of the document. These line numbers, along with the page numbers and lesson title, imply that readers can quickly and accurately refer to any content I produce. While that doesn’t look like a big deal, that design changes took 8+ hours of work and coding in my LaTeX source code to get it to look the way I wanted. My next steps on this project will be to create a quick guide to show readers how to submit errata along with an errata system that includes something like the Knuth Reward Check process. At this point, I won’t be sending out monetary rewards but I do plan to send something like a certificate that has tons of love attached.
Continue to Deep Read to Improve my Content
I am continuing my deep read of the following three books:
- How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck by Steve Stockman
- Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
As I read, I’m creating check lists, summary pages, and personalized production guides that I will use to inform my work to produce videos. My major focus is on mastering the fundamentals of these books and incorporating the lessons into the videos I make. After I finish these deep reads (which will likely take me a few more years, I’ll move onto other books on video production).
Update my plans for YouTube video production
In my last update, I mentioned that I would be producing shorts in the next few months. However, I have updated this plan. I spent about 8 hours researching to inform my decision about how I want to produce and use YouTube short videos. I’ve decided that I will produce short videos after I finish my production of the main feature. This way, my short content can be much higher quality since I can tap into the already completed work to mine for content. Moreover, the short can point to the other content as a way to capture attention. Many successful YouTubers in the space I want to be use this strategy and I plan to follow their lead on this one.
Finally, I’m currently considering competing in the SoME competition sponsored by 3blue1brown. To learn more about this competition, check out the following links:
I haven’t made my final decisions yet. I care a lot more about making my content spectacular than competing in this particular event. However, assuming I finish my content by the submission date, I think it might be a fun way to get some attention on this work. As I dive deeper into the editing and production process in the next 2 – 3 months, I’ll have more updates about my plans. Of course, if the competition is not being held, then this decision would be made for me. More to come on this in future updates.
Jeff Anderson 