Ask HN: Recommendations for ML training 2h a week

4 points by erebrus 9 years ago | 8 comments

The company where I work has allowed me to pick up training up to 2h a week on a subject I like. I would like to pick up AI, probably more the ML part and I'm wondering what would be the best way to make the most of my time.

Just researching on myself is not out of the question, but something a bit more structured would be better. Still, 2h a week might be a bit too little to spend following a proper AI class online.

Also, I'm not new to the subject, but I haven't really done much in it in over 10 years. Therefore, a normal introductory course might be somewhat useless in some points but required in other points. As such, something that I can choose the pace would be the most appropriate.

Any recommendations would be very much appreciated...

brudgers 9 years ago |

Just a thought: is it practical to match the company time with some of your own time? e.g. two hours of company time plus two hours of your own time. The degree to which that sounds like a good idea might be a useful way of gaging your own interest in a particular method or course of study...material that is engaging enough to pursue outside of work is likely to be a good choice for you.

A second thought is to frame the project in calendar time. Two hours a week is a lot of hours over a year.

A third thought is to frame the project in workday time. A half hour a day, every work day is a steady discipline.

Finally, I'm biased toward beginning at the beginning because I often find that skipping the early basics based on what I know means I miss the author telling me which basics the author thinks are important (and since they're the expert, perhaps I ought to value their judgment a bit more than my own in that regard).

Good luck.

boniface316 9 years ago |

I am taking Machine Learning on coursera by Andrew Ag. Initially I was intimidated by the idea of ML as I had no prior programming experience. I started learning data science stuff less than 6 months ago. I started to feel motivated and confident about ML by taking this course. I highly recommend it.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning

erebrus 9 years ago | |

Thanks. I'll look that up. However, how much time does that takes you (weekly)?

mindcrime 9 years ago | | |

It's self-paced, so it's kinda up to you. There are "deadlines" to help keep you on track, but they're optional. To pass, you just have to pass all the graded assignments by the end date. But if you're getting close to the end and are behind, you can always shift your enrollment to the following session - but you keep all your progress and everything. It's pretty cool in that regard. Very low pressure.

mindcrime 9 years ago |

If it isn't too introductory, I'd say take the Andrew Ng course on Machine Learning on Coursera. If that's too introductory, try the Geoffrey Hinton course on Neural Networks on Coursera, or the Google / Tensorflow course on Deep Learning on, er, I think it's EdX.