Summer of Math Exposition

Motivation: There is not much of an introduction except for the title and the opening quote (20 seconds to emerge is way too slow imo) before you get put straight into definitions, so after the quote you could advertise the machine learning applications first. Clarity: I’m a high schooler without much structured learning with the content, but I having encountered most elements in the past I could get by. For me though, the pacing feels quite inconsistent where it slows down noticeably when you start talking about dual numbers + autodiff, and in particular for dual numbers you could have scripted and used manim but I’m guessing this is probably a deadline issue. The audio and video of you talking is desynced which was slightly distracting as well. Also, I think there could have been more visuals/variety of visuals to reflect what you are saying and bring out some more character; often there are long stretches where nothing is changing. Despite these things I definitely still found the video new and gained from it. Novelty: A quick search does lend to other videos about the topic, but the top result doesn’t mention dual numbers, so that’s cool. I’ve never actually heard of them before. Memorability: Overall I think the presentation and the style is too bare-bones for the video to stick long-term, though the concepts might. I probably will remember this, but only because it’s my first review. Try experiment more with manim and editing to make more the content more engaging and accessible to casual viewers.

More visualizations would definitely help this video. I hope the author can provide more contexts as he promised in the very beginning of the video. This sounds like a regurgitation of textbook materials. The video also needs to be better structured with a good roadmap, and clear definitions written on the screen. It might be informative, but it’s not very educational.

I had a lot of fun watching your video. You have covered a lot of topics in one video. Hope to see more videos from you in the future. In the next video, I would suggest to give a short a summary or motivation at the beginning of the video such that the viewer knows what to expect and why is this needed. For example, until the middle of your video, the viewer is not aware that this is useful for ML. If you would mention this at the beginning, the viewer might be more interested.

The Video covered an interesting topic and was understandable. However, sometimes it felt a it random. For example when you talked about neural networks, sure they operate with large matrices, but that’s it. It’s to abstract (also when you were holding up the pieceof paper, it couldn’tbe seen in the camera). It might have been better to put that part at the beginning with a concrete problem that can be solved using matrix differentials.

Another thing that I didn’t really like was the segment where you wrote on the paper. When the rest of the video uses the (really nice) animated formulars, why not here too? And if you want to work with paper, it is easier for the audience to follow the steps when you write them as you say them and not when they are already written down.