Why is vector calculus important to programmers? It may not be to
some, but for others it definitely is. For games? Some fluency with
vectors in three dimensions goes a long ways. ∇ Multivariable calculus
opens doors to upper level engineering, statistics, physics, finance,
machine learning theory, it's all over the place.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradient_descent" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradient_descent</a><p>For people who didn't have a great experience with their own
university studies and for current students who may have had a less
than stellar introduction over a covid semester, this is a great
opportunity to <i>really learn it</i>. If you have single variable
differential and integral calculus under your belt, my suggestion is
to sign up for this class and give it 100%. The course is free to
audit, but if you can afford it then give them your money! They'll be
incentivized to make more of these excellent courses and besides, they
deserve it.<p>This is an important time for online learning. The hype over MOOCs has
died down and the dedicated remaining educators are still at it,
learning from our participation. It's not perfect yet, but even today
some of the courses are way better than their brick and mortar
counterparts. I think this will be true for 18.02x.