

AskHN: Is machine learning mature for business? - red_shadow

Hey,<p>I'm working with an (brand) new startup, and our business concept would be much, much better if we could implement machine learning and prediction.<p>We are mostly working with python, and although language is not (IMHO) the biggest challenge for implementing ML some simple libraries would be a huge time-saver for us<p>However, there are some limitations.<p>1) I haven't actually learned all the math I need to read something like the Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach or other texts that deal with this topic<p>2) I am missing fundemental knowledge of statistics<p>What I'm asking is:<p>What are my chances of learning this in a short-ish timeframe?<p>What do I really need to learn to implement machine learning and estimation for, f.x, the stock market?<p>With regards to statistics, can you recommend me any books or resources similar to "How to measure anything: Finding the value of intangibles in business"?<p>When it comes to that point, how do I interview someone who is better at these things than I am and make an informed decision about who to hire?<p>Thanks. I apologize if this is not the kind of topic usually brought up here, or if this is unwelcome.<p>Edit: Added "AskHN: " to the title. Is that the correct approach?
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steventruong
Ask HN should be two words rather than one. Having said that, the best answer
I can muster up here is "it depends".

Without knowing what you're working on specifically, who you are, what your
situation is, etc etc etc... The following advice is meant to be vague and
general so take it with a grain of salt.

You should always validate your idea with _committed_ users prior to even
writing the first line of code. You should validate whether or not there is a
large enough pool of people wanting what you have to offer and the market
size. This goes without saying that this step should be done regardless if
this is suppose to be the next big thing or just a simple side project.
Assuming you have this done and want to jump into building the MVP, usually,
its unlikely that your MVP will involve heavy ML in it. Giving you ample time
to build, improve, and scale before you need to really do real heavy lifting
(usually, not always).

That said, if you've never done it before, there are lots of resources on here
and other places (a simple Google search will yield results for you on
previous posts) of how best to approach this. However realize its not going to
be a quick solution and you won't master it in a short period of time,
especially since you're involved in a new startup and theres a lot to do and a
steep learning curve on a lot of other things as well.

As for time frame? Thats nearly impossible to answer without knowing what you
already know, who you are, how fast you learn, etc... Realistically, the
likely answer is not very short albeit you can learn some useful stuff in a
short period.

As for interviewing someone with ML chops when you don't know it yourself,
that's difficult advice to give. The best recommendation here would be to find
people you trust and get recommendations and go from there. Its extremely hard
to evaluate anything without understanding it yourself. Ideally if you work
hard on learning ML, even if you're not great at it in a short time frame, it
will help ease the process for hiring purposes and evaluating to some degree.

