Message from @Tyler Baker

Discord ID: 397022334831034370


2017-12-25 01:17:31 UTC  

Yeah Coursera's first course was a pretty good Machine Learning Course by Andrew Ng, but last year they changed the format of the Coursera website SO MUCH that I now find it virtually unusable. That's partly by design, they give very little away for free anymore and they tightly restrict when materials are available.

2017-12-26 03:03:23 UTC  

So just pay for it.

2017-12-26 03:45:00 UTC  

That probably works for some people, but ever since after I finished school I usually study a subject in spurts in a way that doesn't fit well with Coursera's pricing model. I say this as someone who has paid for their courses and generally didn't get my money's worth before they expired.

2017-12-26 03:46:10 UTC  

The best experience I had with a paid Coursera course was when I was doing a programming course with other people. I feel like that model works best for Coursera because that's closest to the classroom model they are going for

2017-12-26 03:48:20 UTC  

When I study on my own though, I like to dive deep into something in a few goes when all of a sudden a few spare hours open up. Coursera is not conducive to this though. Courses start periodically so if it doesn't happen to be the first week of their course then you are SOL. And then the longer courses they have roll out the course material one week at a time, preventing a dive in.

2017-12-26 03:49:10 UTC  

That's why I like to just have all the course materials available at once, all the time. I don't think Coursera has that model for any of the courses I was interested in though.

2017-12-29 00:02:02 UTC  

I do some machine learning light for work and have a masters in data science from Berkeley

2017-12-29 00:02:10 UTC  

I can answer basic questions

2017-12-29 00:02:27 UTC  
2017-12-29 00:03:28 UTC  

It's a lot of hype concealing a clever compilation of basic techniques but a very powerful concept once understood.

2017-12-29 00:05:22 UTC  

It's most useful applications involve large datasets. Currently there are innumerable opportunities for application. The limiting factor is usually expertise and leadership buy in.

2017-12-29 00:06:20 UTC  

Even still one of the most widely applied machine learning techniques is linear regression.

2017-12-29 00:07:04 UTC  

This fact reveals the simplicity at the core of the concept.

2017-12-29 00:08:18 UTC  

Its a beautiful simplicity though and there is a growing library of well documented algorithms for various applications. Even still > 80% of the work is just wrangling the data and pre processing.

2017-12-29 00:12:07 UTC  

If you want to learn check out kaggle.com look at winning solutions for problems that interest you.

2017-12-29 00:12:47 UTC  

For coding I recommend "anacondas" python distribution.

2017-12-29 00:13:15 UTC  

Comes with lots of machine learning and data wrangling libraries pre installed.

2017-12-29 00:14:30 UTC  

Getting involved in a datakind.org project is another good way to learn.

2017-12-29 01:10:41 UTC  

Cool, thanks, @Perihelion - CA

2017-12-31 13:39:42 UTC  

@StrawberryArmada is a sick band

2017-12-31 13:45:00 UTC  

Anybody do tutoring stem in college? how practical idea to make money in college, it sounds like a good idea eventually I'm studying electrical engineering and so far in calculus one.

2017-12-31 13:59:14 UTC  

@Tyler Baker I made some decent side money while tutoring in college, I was charging faily cheap and networked quite a bit

2017-12-31 14:00:04 UTC  

It helped that I worked in the school's tutoring center, students liked my tutoring and asked for private tutoring outside the scheduled hours I worked for the school

2017-12-31 14:04:56 UTC  

sounds good, I was thinking about working in the tutoring center and then eventually doing private tutoring wich im sure is more of a responsibility.

2017-12-31 14:07:51 UTC  

@Tyler Baker yeah there's a great economy of scale in doing it this way, in the sense that at the tutoring center you figure out what it is the students are learning at that time, and it gives you a place to practice that topic and make mistakes if working through it the first time in a while, and then you're prepared for private tutoring

2017-12-31 14:09:18 UTC  

private tutoring later that week I mean

2017-12-31 14:09:39 UTC  

and then during finals week I wound up working 8-12 hour days tutoring

2017-12-31 14:09:50 UTC  

at 20 bucks an hour off the books it was pretty nice

2017-12-31 14:10:34 UTC  

Nice better than doing some cheap labor on the side, kill two birds with one stone

2017-12-31 14:11:14 UTC  

yeah exactly

2017-12-31 14:11:39 UTC  

What I did during the school year was grading + tutoring for the school + private tutoring

2017-12-31 14:12:13 UTC  

it works out alright when you add it all up, and it's all related so you aren't switching modes too much

2017-12-31 14:12:39 UTC  

it helps to get in good with a department, for me it was the math department

2017-12-31 14:12:57 UTC  

I just need to get some classes under my belt probably since im only now getting into calc 1, ive don calc in highschool i was pretty good at it.

2017-12-31 14:12:58 UTC  

by "get in good" I mean I just hung out there all the time

2017-12-31 14:13:09 UTC  

sweet

2017-12-31 14:13:20 UTC  

yeah calc is fun, I wound up sticking with that sort of stuff for a long time

2018-01-04 18:41:41 UTC  

I know a wahmen that's a professional tutor. That's what she does for work, and does it for private school kids, and makes a very good living doing it, sets her own hours, "fires" customers if they don't work out, etc.

2018-01-04 18:47:15 UTC  

how do you get started in that?

2018-01-04 18:47:22 UTC  

sounds hard to even get customers

2018-01-05 01:53:55 UTC  

I can ask her how she did it. Customers snowballed by word of mouth so now there's the equivalent of a "waiting list" and she's considering hiring some people to fill in.