5/2 I'm out of school. What's the best link to self learn stuff like
k-means, clustering with gaussian mixtures, gaussian bayes,
EXPECTATION MAXIMALIZATION, EM convergence, inference engine,
classifier, desnity estimator, regressor, etc?
\_ Start with wikipedia, follow links.
\_ Uh, no. This is not the kind of stuff you can learn
from wikipedia.
\_ Take the first item. K-means. It described the basics
and had pretty informative links to outside sites. Some
of those links have references to books to read/other places
to look. Wikipedia is not a place to learn, but it's a
damn good place to start, esepecially for computer stuff.
The real answer is "find a highly recommended textbook,
buy it and read it." but you were clear about wanting
an online resource.
\_ Go back to school and take a course or two. If you are going
to put in the work you may as well get credit for it. Also,
the structure and ability to ask for help are plusses.
\_ What good is a course credit or two to someone who already has
a long and successful career? He wants to learn a few specific
topics. He should buy a book or find an online tutorial and
read the parts that matter to him. He may (or may not) stumble
into other interesting things that would've been covered in a
class and without the hassle of class.
\_ Many Master's programs are only about 8 classes so 2
classes and you are already 25% of the way there. I know
lots of people with PhDs even who went back for an MS or
even more than one MS. Like I said, if you're going to
put in the work you may as well get the credit. Put
another way: Why *not* take classes? What's the advantage
to avoiding class other than cost, which may not be an
issue if work pays for it?
\_ Because learning a few specifics from a book/article is
a hell of a lot less effort than taking a class, doing
homework, being there at specific hours several days a
week, kissing some instructor's ass for the "A", paying
fees (poss. covered by work as you noted), having your
learning slowed down by the inevitable time wasting
morons in class, etc, etc. If he wants to learn entirely
new branches of knowledge then sure take a class, but that
isn't what OP appears to be looking for. I wouldn't
suggest someone take all of Math 1B if they only wanted
to learn Taylor's Series which can be learned in a few
hours at worst. Some people are addicted to school, that's
fine, gather up all the dgrees on the planet if that's
your thing, other people just want to get work done.
\_ I've learnt a hell of a lot post school without going back.
Having a degree means you should know how to learn. (Unless
your problem is a lack of discipline.)
\_ I didn't say you couldn't learn that way. I just don't
think it's the best way. Who do you ask for help when you
get stuck? Without exams how do you know that you really
"get it" or just think you do? Who helps you separate the
wheat from the chaff? I think every engineer or
programmer does a lot of self-learning. That's almost a
requirement. However, "knowing how to learn" isn't really
the issue here. |