Agreed. If you can program in anything else, you can pick up enough Python to get started in a day (obviously longer to be really productive). I've read the O'

Agreed. If you can program in anything else, you can pick up enough Python to get started in a day (obviously longer to be really productive). I've read the O'Reilly Collective Intelligence book, and Python was a nice fit for expressing the ideas in there. That book would definitely get you started with practical uses of ML quickly. I'm not sure any of it is that cutting edge though in the academic sense. Also just finished On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins last week. Good read. I plan to check out his company's ML ideas when I get some free time - they have free software for download too: http://www.numenta.com/for-developers/software.php http://www.numenta.com/for-developers/software.php