Learn Machine Learning

How Do I Get Started?

The most common question I’m asked is: “how do I get started?”

My best advice for getting started in machine learning is broken down into a 5-step process:

• Step 1: Adjust Mindset. Believe you can practice and apply machine learning.
• What is Holding you Back From Your Machine Learning Goals?
• Why Machine Learning Does Not Have to Be So Hard
• How to Think About Machine Learning
• Find Your Machine Learning Tribe
• Step 2: Pick a Process. Use a systemic process to work through problems.
• Applied Machine Learning Process
• Step 3: Pick a Tool. Select a tool for your level and map it onto your process.
• Beginners: Weka Workbench.
• Intermediate: Python Ecosystem.
• Advanced: R Platform.
• Best Programming Language for Machine Learning
• Step 4: Practice on Datasets. Select datasets to work on and practice the process.
• Practice Machine Learning with Small In-Memory Datasets
• Tour of Real-World Machine Learning Problems
• Work on Machine Learning Problems That Matter To You
• Step 5: Build a Portfolio. Gather results and demonstrate your skills.
• Build a Machine Learning Portfolio
• Get Paid To Apply Machine Learning
• Machine Learning For Money

For more on this top-down approach, see:

• The Machine Learning Mastery Method
• Machine Learning for Programmers

Many of my students have used this approach to go on and do well in Kaggle competitions and get jobs as Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists.