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I was in a similar situation a year ago. Two things fixed my problems: I took a course on Linear Algebra (Bretscher's book up to chap 9) and a Probability cour
by ilzmastr 12y ago
I was in a similar situation a year ago. Two things fixed my problems:
I took a course on Linear Algebra (Bretscher's book up to chap 9) and a Probability course (Ross' book up to chap 6) and did very many problems by hand on paper. I just finished a ML course (Bishop's book, and Jordan's book), mixed grad+undergrad, which was 80% problems w/ pen and paper and 20% code up something algorithmically trivial but mathematically challenging, and don't think I would've been able to pick up the additional math along the way without these two great books and their many exercise problems behind me.
I read layman's explanations of ML concepts a year ago, and got nowhere in terms of my own implementation+debugging/improvement upon established techniques. Now I can solve problems I saw a year ago and thought "no one can do this."
My advice is to take the gateway drugs first, Probability (Ross <- I love this book!) and Lin Alg (I like Bretscher much better than Strang, but not everyone agrees with me :) Take a course in real life (for a grade and a transcript) at a competitive university if possible, nothing makes you study thoroughly like a gun to your head.
- avinassh 12y agoI would appreciate if you can give links to those books on Amazon or some other site. Thanks!
- craigching 12y agoI was interested so I looked them up: A First Course in Probability: http://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Probability-9th/dp/032179477X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418999863&sr=8-1&keywords=probability+ross&pebp=1418999876886 http://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Probability-9th/dp/032179... Linear Algebra with Applications: http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Applications-Otto-Bretscher/dp/0321796977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418999936&sr=8-1&keywords=linear+algebra+bretscher&pebp=1418999943552 http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Applications-Otto-Brets... Note that the Bretscher book has really terrible reviews, but I can't evaluate if the reviews are correct or not.
- Plough_Jogger 12y agoA First Course in Probability: http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-First-Course-in-Probability-EDN-9-by-Sheldon-Ross-/261607443332?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item3ce904cb84 http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-First-Course-in-Probability-EDN-9-... Linear Algebra with Applications: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linear-Algebra-with-Applications-5ed-by-Otto-Bretscher-/251574886499?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item3a93082063 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linear-Algebra-with-Applications-5ed... International editions of textbooks are immensely cheaper.
- feefie 12y agoBesides the price is there anything different between the US and International editions? There must be a trick here... ?
- arghnoname 12y agoSometimes the paper can be thinner. Sometimes it's in black and white and the US edition is in color. The international edition is almost always softcover and the cover may be in Chinese (for instance). The problem sets may be in differing order. Many of these things are described in the comments. I almost exclusively buy international textbooks for home reference if available. The price difference and the relatively small quality difference makes it a no-brainer. If you are doing it for a class though, find a friend with the overpriced version for homework.