>4) Learning "technologies" is not enough imo, you need to couple that with theory to produce really powerful systems. This is HUGE. I'm able to keep up to spe

>4) Learning "technologies" is not enough imo, you need to couple that with theory to produce really powerful systems. This is HUGE. I'm able to keep up to speed and learn more ML and stats comparatively quickly because I have strong applied math foundations (from a physics and applied math background) and have learned the theory behind the stats (from lots of hard work and self study). It fits into the "work smarter, not just harder" bucket. If you can learn 1+1=2, 2+1=3, 3+1=4,... that's a ton of shit to memorize. But learning how x+1 works for all x, you only have to learn one thing (kinda). It's a rough analogy, but that's how I think of it.