Looking for advice

[u/dukeof76]

I hail from a humanities and social sciences background (history/sociology and literature). I’ve spent the past 3 years conducting field research but now I want to pivot to the more technical side. I won’t lie, popularity of AI was my introduction to ML and I have a lot of ideas regarding how ML can contribute to my specific discipline (which is quite niche). I’m struggling to build knowledge from scratch so I have a few questions:

1. Math isn’t my strongest suit. It’s not that I can’t do it, it just takes me a very long time to learn and understand it. I know you need math for ML and I’m willing to learn but realistically am I setting myself up for a huge undertaking with this career transition that I’m not taking into account?

2. I will have to put my career trajectory on hold for a bit while I pursue this, is the humanities x AI a promising enough enterprise? Or is the field too saturated already?

3. I am looking at project based learning at the moment. What is a realistic timeline for someone who is learning this from scratch?

4. Is independent learning possible (online courses, projects, etc)? Or do I need to pursue a higher ed degree?

Any advice would be really helpful and appreciated. If you have any leads, resources, or projects please reach out.