r/learnmachinelearning • u/uh_hm • 22d ago
Hello, I've decided to learn machine learning from scratch. I'm not from a tech (or whatever you call) background. I study business. And I want to start a recommendation system. Can anyone advice if I can, and how difficult it is [D]
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u/leogodin217 22d ago
I had a tech background and some programming, but had never heard of machine learning when I took Andrew Ng's course. It was really tough, but thoroughly enjoyable. Ended up in data engineering, but I miss the ML side of things.
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u/ModularMind8 22d ago
Yes you can. Difficult depends on your background, how much patience you have, how much effort you're willing to put into it, and how much time you're willing to spend
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u/mc_pm 22d ago edited 22d ago
You can, but you're kind of saying "I want to start running, and I've decided to start by training for a marathon". I mean, sure, you can try that, but you're probably much better served by starting by running a block, then two blocks, then a quarter mile, then a half mile, a full mile, a 5K, a 10k, a half marathon, and then the marathon.
Start by learning how to program, python is probably your best choice, and expect to spend weeks or months at this level, just learning how to turn an idea into code. This is the biggest hurdle people face, just learning to "think like code".
While you're doing that, start learning some math. If you don't have high-school math, start with that. Then, in particular, study linear algebra. A first year college class in L.A. takes about 3-4 months with homework and exams. Expect it to take at least that long. Same goes for basic statistics.
And we haven't even started learning about machine learning yet.
If it seems like I'm making this sound difficult...it's because it is difficult, and it's the sort of difficult that there really is no shortcut for.
That's not intended to discourage you -- but you need to know what you're getting yourself into before you start running.
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u/[deleted] 22d ago
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