The 8-step quick-start guide to learn Machine Learning.

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What's machine learning?

Not a framework. Not a different language. Not the latest "cool" thing around the Internet.

Thread: Let me convince you that machine learning is the best thing since sliced bread 🍞.

Let's start with a simple exercise:

"Write a function that returns 0 if a supplied number is even or 1 if the number is odd."

If you are a developer, I'm sure you know how to write this function. It should be simple, right?

To avoid using a specific syntax, let's represent this function as follows:

y = f(X)

Where:
• X → The input number
• y → The result (0 if even, 1 otherwise)
• f → The function that does the work

We can now get to the interesting part.

If you are a programmer, writing this function is simple.

You know the relationship between X (the input number) and y (the output), so you can easily write the rules (the function.)

In machine learning, we don't write the rules. We learn them.

Imagine we had an algorithm that processes many samples (X → y), learns the relationship between them, and comes up with the correct rules.

We call these samples "training data," and they would like like this:

• 2 → 0
• 5 → 1
• 8 → 0
• 4 → 0
• 3 → 1
• ...

I told everyone that I didn't care.

"Screw math! I've never been great with it, so I'm not starting with machine learning to fail at the end."

That was many years ago.

Math is still hard, but I don't think you should be scared at all. Here is why: 🧵👇

[1] One thing changed my mind: school pushed me to the deep end of the pool, and I was forced to swim.

I had to face my fears, and I started machine learning and realized that the math involved is not as scary (or as much) as some people believe.

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[2] Probably one of the most frequent questions I get is around the math needed for machine learning.

Answer:

▫️ Probabilities and Statistics
▫️ Linear Algebra
▫️ Calculus

But it turns out that this is not helpful.

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[3] What are you gonna do with this?

Are you going to learn all there's is about linear algebra before looking into machine learning?

How about probabilities and statistics? Or calculus? Do you know how extensive calculus is?

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[4] Many people stop looking into machine learning as soon as somebody tells them that calculus is a pre-requisite.

First of all, the amount of calculus you truly need is minuscule.

Second, without proper direction, there's no way you'll find your way through the noise.

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One of the most popular activation functions used in deep learning models is ReLU.

I asked: "Is ReLU continuous and differentiable?"

Surprisingly, a lot of people were confused about this.

Let's break this down step by step: ↓

Let's start by defining ReLU:

f(x) = max(0, x)

In English: if x <= 0, the function will return 0. Otherwise, the function will return x.

If you draw this function, you'll get the attached chart.

Notice there are no discontinuities in the function.

This should be enough to answer half of the original question: the ReLU function is continuous.

Let's now think about the differentiable part.

A necessary condition for a function to be differentiable: it must be continuous.

ReLU is continuous. That's good, but not enough.

Its derivative should also exist for every individual point.

Here is where things get interesting.

We can compute the derivative of a function using the attached formula.

(I'm not going to explain where this is coming from; you can trust me on this one.)

We can use this formula to see whether ReLU is differentiable.

Thread for beginners; How to learn machine learning.

Let’s start with something really simple and useful not just for Machine Learning.

Start with a Python library called pandas. It’s a huge library but it's mostly fun for traders because it's kind of rewarding to learn each function and how it gonna affect the way you handle the financial data.

Then learn some basic stuff about Python library called NumPy. Pandas is built on NumPy. Numpy is huge, you just need to understand some basic NumPy functions like NumPy shapes and NumPy arrays

If you understand pandas then you will understand NumPy arrays and shapes easily. Side note: Numpy shapes gonna play an important part in the deep learning model called LSTM - mainly used for time-series analysis(such as financial data) and Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Are you planning to learning machine learning this year?

These are the Python frameworks you need to learn as an absolute beginner.

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It can be overwhelming seeing all the machine learning frameworks at once and not even knowing what they do.

I made this thread so that your machine learning journey becomes just a little bit easier.

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This thread will only focus on Python frameworks.

Why?
Because Python is the most common path into machine learning.

( If you have experience with any other language then learning Python will not be difficult at all. )

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Here's the entire list:

- Pandas
- Numpy
- Matplotlib
- TensorFlow
- PyTorch
- Keras
- Scikit Learn

Let's see what they do.

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You'll have to interact with csv files or databases on a regular basis to access data in machine learning, pandas helps you do just that.

The cool thing about Pandas is that it actually doesn't change the original data...

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We hear a lot about Facebook as a platform for manipulation - using machine learning to bypass our critical faculties and trick us into believing things that are bad for us - but the real show is in Facebook's ability to target, not manipulate.

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People who hold disfavored views struggle to find one another and mobilize. To find other people that feel the same way as you and make common cause with them to effect political change, you have to reveal your views and suffer social sanction.

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Search allows people who hold these views to find one another. If you have a deep feeling about your gender being nonbinary but don't know the words for it, you can search for communities of people who have those words, join them, and discover who you've been all along.

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This is why, in this moment, so many ideas are migrating from the fringe to the center: ideas about racial justice, gender identity, alternatives to market systems, etc. People have harbored these views all along, but have held back on expressing them.

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Being able to express yourself in private, among people who share your views, is a prelude to going public and putting your case to the wider world in hopes of effecting change.

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