Yeah, my math class followed Axler, which was great - but I didn't really get a feel for how useful linear algebra was until I read through Strang on my own. The applications are endless!

>>The applications are endless!

Pretty much all of grad level engineering classes, all of grad level Stats classes, all of grad level Econ classes include applications of LA. Heck quantitative research work in social sciences are still included via stats.

When I taught linear algebra I used Strang and a book from the UK by Morris that seems to be out of print these days.

So did you read through Strang and then read Axler, or did you try to work through both of them at the same time?

Same time. I'd taught myself linear algebra from the Strang lectures (and a Slack study group we set up with some random university's syllabus, which gave us a set of homework problems to do) long before this, so mostly I just matched the professor's lectures to the Strang material, and dipped in and out of Axler when proof and conceptual stuff came up; it's not like we did Axler cover to cover.

Before doing this, I'd only ever sort of skimmed Axler; it's sort of not the linear algebra you care about for cryptography, and up until the spectral theorem stuff that's exactly what Strang was. It was neat to get an appreciation for Axler this was.