Axol 🌊

ML engineer becoming indie hacker

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

How I got a job at a big tech company working in AI/ML without a masters or a PHD. A thread 🧵

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@Keremaakan So that’s also why you don’t exactly need to be an expert at math, so long as you can understand the models and their behavior you’ll be fine.

I’ve seen PhD grads struggle a non zero amount of times because they over complicate things, sometimes at the detriment of the product.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

How I got a job at a big tech company working in AI/ML without a masters or a PHD. A thread 🧵

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@Keremaakan I’ll make a different thread about this another day but basically in industry you first try to use existing models and architectures before you try to create your own architecture. Pre trained models let you hit the ground running, which means a faster feature turnaround.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@Keremaakan For math it was mostly my courses in college, calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, statistics the classic combo. I also really like 3blue1brown

I’d say my calc math isn’t my strongest suite but my statistical intuition is better.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily @ampparitte And long answer is also yes. If you’re at one job you might use PyTorch but when you move to a another company everything might be built in tensorflow so you’d have to implement things with that library when you join the team. Library changes but principles and intuition remain.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

To chart a course and accept the journey with joy as you’ll become greater through the pain and suffering.

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily Very based! Life has never been easy. From hunter gatherers ‘till now, life wasn’t easy but today we have the biggest opportunity for self actualization! 🙌🙌

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily Thanks!!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily are you planning on building something? One of the things that helped me the most to learn AI/ML was to build a lot and in many different domains. If you think of an idea for some ML project go and try to build it, even if it seems daunting. You’ll learn a ton!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@AMplayslife I would also say that even if you don’t land a client within 1 month you might want to revisit a skill in the future for example SEO marketing. Since if you build a product it could help you make more sales.

12 skills in 12months is great to start your income journey!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@AMplayslife I love the spin on the 12 startups in 12 months mindset! 🙌🙌

Look up Alex Hormozi & Naval Ravikant

The big thing I’d add is skills with leverage.They might not necessarily land you a client in a month but they are valuable in scaling YOUR capabilities. Like coding & marketing

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily Otherwise I’ll go ahead and deep dive into it at a future point. For example, when stable diffusion was starting and multiple implementations were coming out I then decided to deep dive. I’ll probs do the same with mamba soon.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@lelouchdaily What goes in your mind when you say ML algorithm?

From a pragmatic point of view (applied ML) it’s often good to have a surface level understanding of it and how it could be used.

If it has relevance to work then go ahead and apply it. Otherwise (1/2)

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@ronawang False dichotomy.

You can build && work for someone.

Ryan Holiday put it really well: “A job is a trust fund you earn for yourself”.

We don’t all have the privileges of being rich. But we have nights and weekends.

Hone your skills at work, ship fast for yourself.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains Amazing!! Really cool!! Wishing you the best with that!!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains Ahh that’s dope!! Since you speak it would you ever wanna teach it to your kids?

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains I personally think it’s a big perk that can bring dividends for the kid down the line cuz socializing with lots of people can become easier!

What motivated you to learn Chinese? I’m currently also in the process of learning it!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains Any thoughts on language learning and “making them” learn more languages than what’s required from the society they live in? Particularly at a young age.

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains I like your take of two questions!

I would personally go as far as saying statistics is a must (helps understand research, natural phenomena etc). If a kid progresses faster than expected then going to calculus doesn’t seem bad plus gives strong foundation for anything after!

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains Gotcha, that sounds fun!

Do you have a particular philosophy as to when (skill level) a kid should be left to their own accord & decide to continue to engage with math (or any other subject) or pursue a different interest?

Too much pressure could make them dislike the subject

[Axol 🌊 @bldr_axol]

@tracewoodgrains Interesting! I’ll take a look!

Any specific things that are highlights of this system in your eyes?

Do you think it’s able to dynamically adapt to the student’s level how mastery based learning does?