Clever Geek Handbook

How to learn Machine Learning 5 days a week 9 months in a row

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I studied machine learning every day for nine months, and then I got a job.



I quit Apple. Launched a web startup, but nothing came of it. The soul did not lie to this.



I wanted to study machine learning. This is what inspired me. I was going to study everything to the smallest detail. I didn’t need to program all these rules, they would do everything for me. But I didn't have a job.



And inspiration doesn't pay my bills.



On weekends, I started working at Uber to pay for my studies.



I loved meeting new people, but I hated being behind the wheel all the time. Traffic jams, brake, gas, constant thoughts about gasoline and refueling, air, air conditioning, gear shifting, where you can and where you can not go, all these thoughts.



I studied machine learning. All day long, five days a week. It was difficult. It’s not easier now.



Uber on weekends. Machine learning on weekdays. This was my daily life. I had to study. I had to learn, I just couldn't drive. At that time, I had no life purpose, but I knew for sure that this was not driving. I earned $ 280 one Saturday night and was fined $ 290. Minus $ 10 for one night.



Nine months after completing my personal degree in AI, I found a job. And it was the best job of my life.



How did I manage to practice every day?

That's how.



1. Reduce your search space



Machine learning is a vast field. There is code, mathematics, probability, statistics, data and algorithms.



There is no dearth of learning resources. And the abundance of options is equal to their lack.

If you are serious about learning, then create a curriculum for yourself. Instead of spending weeks wondering if you should learn Python or R, start a course on Coursera or edX, start with math or code, spend one week developing a rough plan, and then stick with it.



This is how I arrived at my own master's degree in AI... I decided to study the code first and chose Python as my programming language. I searched everywhere for different courses and books and selected the ones that interested me the most. Is this method suitable for everyone? Most probably not. But it was mine, and that's why it worked.



Once I had a curriculum, a path that I could follow, I could no longer waste time thinking. I could get out of bed, sit at the table and learn what I needed (and wanted) to learn.



I was not hard on myself. If I found something interesting, I turned out of my way and learned new things.



You should create your own path if you are studying online and not at a university.



2. Change your environment



Your grandfather's first orange farm failed.



The soil was good. He planted seeds. And the equipment could not fail.

What happened?



It was too cold. Oranges grow at high temperatures. Your grandfather knew how to grow oranges, but the cold climate left them no chance.



He moved to a warmer city and tried to open another farm again.

Twelve months later, your grandfather's orange juice was the best in town.

Learning is like growing oranges.



Without motivation to learn, no laptop, the internet, or the best books will help you.

Why?



The problem is what surrounds you.



There are tons of things in your room that are so easy to get distracted by.

You try to study with your friends, but they are not as dedicated as you are.

Whatsapp messages arrive every seven minutes.



What to do about it?



I turned my room into a study retreat. I washed it. I turned off all alerts and put my phone in a dresser in another room.



I warned my friend that I would talk to him after 4:00 pm when I turn on the phone. He agreed.



I love spending time with friends, but study time is just for study. Can't survive all day without your phone? Start at one hour. Any drawer you can't see will do. Do not disturb should be the default.



Change the environment around you and knowledge will flow like a river to you.



3. Set up the system so that you are always a winner



Problem # 13 baffled me. I am stuck.



I wanted to deal with her yesterday, but I couldn't.



Now I need to study, but I worked so hard yesterday and it didn't work out.



I'm putting it off. I know I have to learn. But not today.



It's a cycle.



Hell. I've been in a similar situation before. However, nothing has changed.



A stack of books stared at me. Problem number 13. I'm starting a timer. 25 minutes. I know I may not be able to solve the problem, but I can sit down and try.



It's been four minutes, I feel like hell. It's just awful, but I don't stop. In twenty-four minutes, I don't want to stop.



The timer goes off, I'm looking for a new one. And one more. After three approaches, I solve the problem. I tell myself that I am the best engineer in the world. Of course this is not true, but it doesn't matter.



Even a small achievement is an achievement.



You may not always have control over your academic progress. But you can control the time spent on things.



You can control: four sets of 25 minutes a day.

You cannot control: the completion of each new task on the same day.




Set up your system to always win.



4. Sometimes do nothing



I came to the following conclusion. Learning is the most important skill . If I can learn to learn better, I can do anything better. I can learn machine learning, I can become a good programmer, I can write better. I decided that I should improve my ways of learning. And immediately began.



I took the Learning to Learn course on Coursera . One of the themes was focused and absentminded thinking.



Focused thinking occurs when you perform a single task.



Absentminded thinking occurs when you are not thinking about anything.



At the intersection of these two ways of thinking is the moment for better learning. Therefore, it is in our souls that the best ideas and thoughts come to us. Because nothing else happens there.



Absentminded thinking allows your brain to tie together everything it absorbed during focused thinking.



The catch is that for it to work properly, both ways of thinking must be involved.



If you do four sets of focused thinking for 25 minutes, then go for a walk. Take a nap. Sit down and think about what you have learned.

As soon as you start doing nothing more often, you will see the value of many things due to the freed up space. The room is four walls around space, there is nothing in the bus but air, and the ship sails from empty space.



There should be more doing nothing in your study routine.



5. Sucks to come to terms with



Studying sucks.



Today you will learn what you will forget tomorrow.



Then again, and again you will forget.



And further.



Forgot.



You spend the entire weekend studying, you go to work on Monday and everything repeats itself.

Someone asked me how long I remember what I read in books. I replied that there was no way. If I'm lucky, I will remember 1% of all content. However, when that 1% overlaps with 1% of something else, magic happens. At times like this, I feel like an expert at connecting points.



You realize how much there is still to be learned when you have already learned something throughout the year.

When will it end?



Never. You are always at the very beginning of the journey.



Humble yourself.



6. The three-year principle



I was in the park the other day.



There was a little boy running all over the park, having a great time. I climbed a hill and rolled off it, ran behind a tree and ran out from behind it, into the mud, up and down the slope.



He laughed and jumped and laughed again.



His mother came over.



"Come on, Charlie, we have to go."



She led him away, and he continued to laugh, swinging his blue plastic spatula.

What fascinated him so?



He played. He was having fun. The whole world was new. In our culture, there is a clear line between work and play. Learning is work.



You have to study in order to get a job. You have to work to make money. Money can buy free time. And only in this free time can you be like Charlie - run around and laugh.



If you think of school as work, it will feel like you are in hell. Because you can always learn more. And you know the rule - only work, no games.



Now suppose learning is the process of going from one topic to the next.

As if you are connecting different objects in the game.



And then you will have the same feeling, like Charlie, sliding down the hill.



You learn one thing, use it to learn something else, get stuck, get over it, and learn something else. Turn the whole process into a dance.



I found out that if you have structured data in the form of tables, columns or data frames, then ensemble algorithms such as CatBoost, XGBoost, and LightGBM are best suited. And for unstructured data like pictures, videos, natural language, or audio, deep learning and / or transfer learning should be your choice.



I have connected the dots. Told myself that I am an expert in this. Danced from point to point.



Do this and you will have more energy by the end of the session than at the beginning.



This is the three-year principle. Think of everything as a game.



Well, that's enough.

It's time for me to sleep.

This is a bonus.



7. Sleep



If you don't sleep well, you will study poorly.



You probably don't sleep enough either.



I definitely haven't slept. Friday and Saturday nights were the most profitable at Uber. People went to restaurants, to parties, to nightclubs. I - no, I drove. I worked until 2-3 in the morning, returned home and slept until dawn at 7-8 in the morning. Two days were a complete nightmare. It was Monday, and I seemed to be living in a different time zone. On Tuesday it was a little better, by Wednesday everything fell into place. But Friday came and everything was repeated.



Such disturbed sleep patterns were simply unacceptable. I wanted to improve my training. Sleep cleanses the brain, allowing new connections to form. I finished work at 10-11 pm, came home and slept for 7-9 hours. Less money, more knowledge.



Don't swap sleep for learning time. Do the opposite.



Machine learning is a vast field.



And in order to study well not only it, but also anything, you must remember:



  • Reduce your search space
  • Change your environment
  • Accept that you can screw up
  • Sometimes don't do anything
  • Think of learning as a game, and
  • Sleep is the path to knowledge




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