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I want everyone to read and re-read your bit about data science and machine learning. Many times. I think even people in the software industry underestimate bot
by sidlls 10y ago
I want everyone to read and re-read your bit about data science and machine learning. Many times. I think even people in the software industry underestimate both how accurate and how difficult it is to employ statistics to produce something truly meaningful.
My current job is on a data science team. I find it amusing that the business folks are able to sell our product, and then sigh to myself and do a little crying inside when I realize how it's possible.
- quantumhobbit 10y agoTo most people machine learning and data science are magic. They either believe in magic or they don't. Once you learn it with sufficient mathematical sophistication, it stops being magic and starts being a tool that works in some situations and not in others. You are surrounded by people who believe in the magic and will buy anything whether it works or not. Equally frustrating is being surrounded by non-believers who don't accept that simple things are actually possible. We are still on the upswing for now so there are more believers than not. But if another AI winter happens, be prepared for the mbas to reject applications of data science that make complete sense because "we tried that data science stuff and it doesn't work".
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoWell, as someone who took a solid class in machine-learning, has an understanding of why it works, and regards it far more as science than magic, "we" who know it damn well committed a sin and sold our souls for funding if "we" just told everyone else it was magic. Now, admittedly, I think the deep-learning folks are so glad to finally have their faith in neural networks vindicated that they've let themselves buy into their own propaganda, but that doesn't mean there's any actual magic!