There's at least two ways to go about learning ML, and I think ideally one should do both. One is to use a high level tool like TensorFlow or Azure ML Studio t

There's at least two ways to go about learning ML, and I think ideally one should do both. One is to use a high level tool like TensorFlow or Azure ML Studio to experiment with what the tools can do with data. This can get you sufficient competency to use these algorithms in a practical way. The other is to learn the foundations of those algorithms so you can best understand how to tune, apply and extend them. This is the path to mastery.