cs3206

Somehow, I ended up on a tropical island in the Phillipines. I think I am supposed to be writing a book but I am too busy living.

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@AlexAndBooks_ Book

[Santiago @svpino]

The first rule of Machine Learning:

Do not start with machine learning.

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I struggle with this daily.

Companies call me because they want to use machine learning. It's always tempting to start the conversation there. Yet, machine learning is usually not the best way to start a solution.

Here is a better approach:

Step 1 - Start with simple heuristics

Heuristics is a fancy word. We—simple people—prefer to call them "simple rules."

You should start most problems by writing simple rules. It may not be perfect, but it's a better solution than jumping straight into machine learning.

There are two significant advantages to this approach. First, you'll learn much more about the problem you need to solve. Second, you'll have a baseline to compare against any future machine-learning solution.

For example, imagine you are building an online shopping store. You want to show your users a list of recommended products. Instead of thinking about machine learning, start with a fixed list of recommendations. You can upgrade that to a list sorted by popularity. You can solve this problem in many ways before training a model.

Step 2 - Replace heuristics with a simple model

There's a point where you don't want to keep adding complexity to your rules. Maintaining a simple machine-learning model is easier than a codebase of complex rules.

When your rules get out of hand, train a simple model and replace your heuristics with it.

People usually recommend starting with simple algorithms like linear regression or decision trees. This makes sense, but simplicity doesn't always refer to the algorithm but how easy it is to use.

For example, a ResNet-50 model is a complex convolutional neural network. But you can download a pre-trained version and start using it fast.

Step 3 - Increase complexity

There's a point where your simple solution can't give you better performance.

Here is when you should start exploring more complex solutions. Sometimes, a better model can improve your results. Sometimes, you need many models or combine them with manual rules.

Getting to this step is not a goal but a necessity.

Start as simple as possible and fight to stay there.

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@Locati0ns Laughably inaccurate

[that Jeff Smith @thatjeffsmith]

I forgot how much stress/BS is involved in buying a house. And it's been a LONG time since I bought real estate.

[Gerald Venzl 🚀 @GeraldVenzl]

Never having to worry about whether you are on the latest version of @oraclesqlcl anymore - loving it!

You can get the script here: https://t.co/Y6ERp0xNsf

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@JoshLFC_6 Sam Mitchell is though.

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@hasantoxr Send

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@connor_mc_d It happened to me again just now

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@mrblockchaindev I'd like to read your book please

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@swesley_perth WHERE goes_gravity?

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@lukaseder @connor_mc_d Especially this one! Deadliest marsupial in the world. Just see what happens if you try to take his weed. Not to mention his uncouth table manners.
But Connor need not live in fear. Koala stick to the East Coast, being far too lazy and sensible to hitch a ride through the Outback

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@swesley_perth Ah yes, the triple vinyl release

[SQL Daily @sqldaily]

You can traverse hierarchies in #SQL using recursive WITH

WITH tree ( ... ) AS (
SELECT ...
UNION ALL
SELECT ...
FROM tree ...
)
SELECT ...
FROM tree

This enables you to follow parent-child relationships in your data

@vlad_mihalcea demos https://t.co/XazqAHY1TG

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@sgnj151 @xkcdComic Where did it go?

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@swesley_perth Which one, Scott? There are at least a couple of great Floyd tribute bands getting around.

[cs3206 @cs3206]

@Hildy333 @rice_e @sea_dazzle @trocaire I think it is pretty clear. There are too many of us. Birth control must be taught in school, not banned by lunatic religions. 2 children per couple, max, for a century or more