“To all you that are trying to tell people they can become professionals in just a few weeks JUST to sell your product – shame on you!”

This is a great video that explains a lot of what I’ve observed from students trying to machine learning, but put more eloquently than I could have said myself. =)

I’m always having to contend against students who have taken a super easy-peasy course, actually learned nothing, but believe they know everything. Then, when they come up against the real content, they believe it’s because the instructor is trying to make the course really “elite” or trying to make them feel “dumb” by including lots of math and/or programming that they can’t understand.

But realize:

  • I (or any other instructor) did not invent these subjects
  • If the subject requires math, that’s because it does
  • If the subject requires programming, that’s because it does

We didn’t put math in there just to torture you. If you’re taking a math course, it’s probably going to have math in it.

A student gets frustrated because they don’t understand the real subject, but really they should be frustrated with the instructor who gave them the empty course that provided them with no skill and too much confidence.

This video is about software developers, but if you view it from the perspective of machine learning, everything still applies. Watch the video!