
Some Notes on the “Andrew Ng” Coursera Machine Learning Course - harveynick
https://ftrsn.net/2018/02/11/some-notes-on-the-andrew-ng-coursera-machine-learning-course/
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jcadam
I took the 11-week Coursera course last year (and even paid for the 'verified'
certificate). It was worth it, I think. I may not have a deep understanding of
the different ML algorithms that were presented, but at least I know of their
existence, and to what problems they are suited (and then I can look up the
details when needed).

Granted, that's not enough to actually find work doing anything ML-related, as
there are now plenty of experts with years of experience out there on the job
market, but hey, I like learning stuff for the sake of it. I'm thinking of
taking one of the follow-up courses on NN.

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kregasaurusrex
What made you decide to take the paid certificate route? I've browsed job
boards for the past few months; but have seen that employers are increasingly
looking for degrees as a minimum requirement versus having a Coursera
certificate. Especially with regards to anything involving the ML space, it
seems like employers are more interested in it as a supplement to a degree
rather than being useful on its own.

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jcadam
Well, I have a BS in Comp Sci as well as an MBA. Moment of weakness, I guess.
Besides, since I paid for it up front, I had that much more motivation to
finish the course :)

In any case, it's on the resume. No idea if it looks good or not.

Of course, if I were really serious about it, maybe I ought to go for a PhD in
CS. But at 37 years old, I'm approaching the end of my useful life as a
software engineer. I understand I have to report to something called
"Caoursel" on my 40th birthday, whatever that is.

EDIT: Allright, I took it because at the time I was working as a software
development "SME" on a program in which AI, ML and data science terms were
being bandied about by the PhDs and I wanted to be able to sit in on meetings
and at least follow the conversation (And not look completely stupid. Adopting
a stern look and nodding along will only get you so far, occasionally you have
to speak). The course largely fulfilled its purpose on that score.

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kregasaurusrex
I'm a bit younger on the age range at 23, and taking some time out of school
since my grades and finances weren't quite where I wanted them to be. Would
you say a person who has a handful of relevant Coursera certificates and does
well on an interview would be able to compete against a degree holder who also
did above average?

For your case of staying current in newer tech I can see the market reason for
taking it. People like Knuth who're well into their 70's still seem to find
ways to remain relevant as well. What is the "Caoursel" you're referring to?

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bitL
After 40 you'd be actively managed out by a company, even if you built their
business from the scratch. You see it happening all the time, once you start
thinking you should now reap rewards of your hard work, you'll be shown the
door. Better start your own company and fight for life than to end up 40-year
old unemployed burned out developer.

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tinymollusk
^ This is one person's opinion that reflects their own experience.

I am a 35 year old who has done development, and may do it again in the
future. I have kept my skillset updated by taking several AI courses during a
sabbatical.

If you are competing against a group that competes for roles that select for
what you think is silly, you'll never win. This does not describe most
startups; it may be an indicator of _bad startups_.

There is age discrimination, for sure. In the startup cohort study of the
future, I am quite confident those exhibiting this discrimination will not be
on the successful side.

Younger devs focus on their skills. Older devs focus on the value they bring
to the company. Companies that focus on the latter will do better.

YMMV, we live in a probabilistic world.

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bitL
It's not my experience, it's my observations on people that graduated MIT and
similar top schools, created awesome things and got the boot from companies
they built without any remorse from management that sensed more money to them.
At 35 you are likely at the peak of your abilities and just starting decline
in your employability. Try to apply to some companies online for the fun of it
(e.g. practice current crop of interviews) and report back on how many want to
talk to you and how many want to give you more $ than you are earning right
now.

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enraged_camel
I have tried to get into Machine Learning/Deep Learning a few times, but I
found it difficult to get motivated because I feel like I don't have any
immediate use cases in my own personal or professional life to which I can
apply them.

Even areas in which my company can potentially benefit from Machine Learning,
we don't have access to vast troves of data to use as training sets. So our
brainstorming sessions have gone nowhere.

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lee101
So many use cases! Take the course! You can use regularization to learn from
small datasets by penalizing learning extreme biased feature weightings.

For finding a use case or at work just think of any normal problem like UI or
ux design, or showing someone an enjoyable loading screen or funny picture,
anyone can make something okay but to solve a problem close to optimally you
start to need to gather data and do ml/ai

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enraged_camel
Well, for example, can I look at the company's sales performance over the past
24 months (along with various factors such as number of sales staff on the
field) and accurately predict its numbers next month?

Where would I start with this? Is this even an ML problem?

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FlyingLawnmower
Time series data is hard, especially without lots of training examples.

Consider looking into traditional forecasting methods as a baseline. AR(I)MA
based approaches with seasonality might actually be fine for you.

However, it all changes if there are structural breaks in your dataset. Look
into Rob Hyndman's free online book
([https://otexts.org/fpp2/](https://otexts.org/fpp2/)) for an excellent
introduction into timeseries forecasting.

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lee101
Ended up founding a ml startup predicting crypto currency prices
[https://bitbank.nz](https://bitbank.nz) after finishing this course! such a
good skillset to have I didn't know what I would do when I started the course
just that I should learn this ml stuff

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dalacv
serious question: how well was bitbank able to predict the recent bitcoin
selloff?

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kerberos84
given that he gives only 1 day free trial, clearly he is not confident of his
system.

