I used to feel the same way in regards to a lot of technology. I think this is the problem with trying to be a generalist is it seems like you need to be an exp

I used to feel the same way in regards to a lot of technology. I think this is the problem with trying to be a generalist is it seems like you need to be an expert at everything. Machine learning might be a great area to specialize in these days but if it is not for you I wouldn't stress out about it. There are also a lot of resources for ML that don't require diving off the deep end such as tutorials/intro classes on coursera. In my opinion also picking what you learn helps as well. Trying to skip straight to neural networks might not be the best place to start if you don't know anything about linear regressions or classifiers.