Overview of class

My goal is to give you a one degree of distance to the stuff thats happening in in the book.

There is a lot of technical syntax to consider in this class. I hope our discussions can be more about the big overview.

How to learn

some algorithms are designed to run on silicon and some are designed to run on carbon. Some ideas are great on carbon but intractable in silicon. Some ideas run great on silicon, over-optimized.
You need to develop ways of thinking about the problem that allows you to apply your techniques.
What question would you like to be able to answer with these skills that you can't currently?
Stack overflow life cycle (1. Can't find question, 2. Finding answers, 3. Realizing many answers are poor.)

What is machine learning

There is no simple solution to statistical validity. There is no function, but rather a conversation.
Four ways of thinking about data. Tall, flat, square, blocks

Language choice

coding is not about syntax Syntax is how you convey ideas, some ideas are specific to language, but most programming fundamentals are standard.
python -> pandas
scripting versus programing, interactive environment versus output
Python packages versus R repo

Notes:

Keepers of the algorithms.

Magic trick.