I made this transition in my late 20s after ~10 years of generalist engineering. I don't believe I could have done it without going back to school. After a deca

I made this transition in my late 20s after ~10 years of generalist engineering. I don't believe I could have done it without going back to school. After a decade writing code, I found stochastic thinking to be non-intuitive, and school helped me practice a lot of concepts. However, that was before a lot of online ML material became available. YMMV I think of it like the gym. You could get in there and start something tomorrow, but unless you've been taught good form there's a good chance you'll injure yourself.