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Like Jeremy Howard (fast.ai) says, nobody learns baseball by first studying several years how to build baseball bats, optimal playing strategies, or managing ba

Like Jeremy Howard (fast.ai) says, nobody learns baseball by first studying several years how to build baseball bats, optimal playing strategies, or managing baseball teams. Nope, you're given a bat, told where to stand, swing the bat and try to hit the ball. Suddenly, you're playing baseball.

deleted 8y ago
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nightski 8y ago
My problem was not with Alex or his approach (which I agree is a great way to get started as stated in my original post). It was the narrative the article was pushing about how knowledge of the field doesn't matter, just strong work ethic and selling yourself visually to potential employers.
- disgruntledphd2 8y ago
  I get where you're coming from (and I was convinced that I would dislike the article when I realised what it was about). However, there's some good advice: - get real data - clean it, play with it, build models - focus on the cleaning, as that's what the gig normally is (and damn right too, your models will be way better if you've taken the time to understand your data). I did find the and then he got a job part annoying, but the post was much better than I expected (relative to other towardsdatascience posts).
majormajor 8y ago
This feels inaccurate, or misleading because you typically learn baseball when very young. Going out and swinging wildly without knowing how is hardly "playing baseball." When I tried to learn how to golf a lot of time was spent on proper form and club choice, not just "swing!" I swung as much without a ball in front of me as with one.
- kkarakk 8y ago
  did your instructor also sit you down and instruct you on how the materials involved in your club make it possible for you to swing? the club is just the component you need to launch the ball towards the hole using your skill. you don't need or want to know what the club is made of until you think of buying a more expensive club(which might be never)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

nightski 8y ago

My problem was not with Alex or his approach (which I agree is a great way to get started as stated in my original post). It was the narrative the article was pushing about how knowledge of the field doesn't matter, just strong work ethic and selling yourself visually to potential employers.

disgruntledphd2 8y ago
I get where you're coming from (and I was convinced that I would dislike the article when I realised what it was about). However, there's some good advice: - get real data - clean it, play with it, build models - focus on the cleaning, as that's what the gig normally is (and damn right too, your models will be way better if you've taken the time to understand your data). I did find the and then he got a job part annoying, but the post was much better than I expected (relative to other towardsdatascience posts).

majormajor 8y ago

This feels inaccurate, or misleading because you typically learn baseball when very young. Going out and swinging wildly without knowing how is hardly "playing baseball." When I tried to learn how to golf a lot of time was spent on proper form and club choice, not just "swing!" I swung as much without a ball in front of me as with one.

kkarakk 8y ago
did your instructor also sit you down and instruct you on how the materials involved in your club make it possible for you to swing? the club is just the component you need to launch the ball towards the hole using your skill. you don't need or want to know what the club is made of until you think of buying a more expensive club(which might be never)