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Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

#81

Post by chollida1 »

jedberg wrote: post #33

I'm not using it at this moment, but in a couple of weeks I'll have a newborn, and I was thinking of taking pictures of him every time he is upset, and then tagging the photo with what ends up being the resolution (feed, change, or nap) and seeing if I could build a classifier that could figure out what he needs just from a picture of his angry face. Semi-related, but if anyone is using the AWS tools for their AI, pl…

:) I really like the idea and get ready for the excitement of having a family.

I think the problem you'll end up having is that in some/most cases you are never really certain what the problem was.

Feeding might make the crying stop but you have no way of knowing if the reason for the crying was hunger. Similar problems for sleep, diaper changing, etc.

Every time the crying stops you can never be certain if you just made them temporarily forget about the root problem or if you did properly identify the root cause.

TL/DR my hypothesis after raising my own kids, is that the data will be almost all noise with very little perceptible signal.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

#84

Post by hyencomper »

mromnia wrote: post #18
ashark wrote: post #7

I use it as something to worry about not knowing how to use, and how that might make me unemployable in a few years, while also having no obvious need for it at all, and therefore no easy avenue towards learning it, especially since it requires math skills which have completely rusted over because I also never need those, so I'd have to start like 2 levels down the ladder to work my way back up to it. I've found it v…

+1 I find it frustratingly hard to learn ML on my own, when I don't have a real problem to solve, just exercises.

You could participate in one of the Kaggle competitions. I personally have found it extremely useful to improve my ML skills.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

#85

Post by ashark »

hasbroslasher wrote: post #70
ashark wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like concern that not having those skills (or something comparably advanced, but also with no immediate use in my work or life) will force me to slide down, rather than up, if/when competition from overseas finally hollows out the middle of the US developer market—though I'm not sure why this hasn't already happened, so maybe I'm wrong to worry about that at all. Not concern that ML programs will start writ…

Overseas competition? I'm not sure what you're on about now - it's currently the hardest [1] time in history to get an H1-B with Cheeto man in the White House. Also I think that USA-born and educated developers are still significantly more sought after because of language barriers. If you've tried to get a job in tech recently you'll notice that... it's pretty damn easy. Honestly it sounds like you're paranoid about…

H1B? No I don't care about that. I just think it's a bit concerning that the only things keeping this cornucopia full are the circumstances of a language barrier that's only relevant because foreign software companies largely aren't yet competitive with those in the US, and that no-one's fully cracked making remote work a thing on a large scale. That's a tissue-paper thin barrier protecting the wages of 95+% of the people employed as software developers in the US who aren't doing anything remarkable.

My job security's fine as long as all these dumb "Facebook for Dogs", mid-sized software company doing nothing all that amazing (so: 99% of mid sized software companies), and "Non-software-company software division" jobs that comprise a giant percentage (almost certainly the vast majority) of US development jobs remain in the US (or other expensive OECD states). I'm just not certain why they would remain here, in the medium-term. It's not paranoia so much as "gee, why the hell am I paid so much?" The reasons seem pretty weak, which... isn't comforting. It's not like I'm curled up shaking in the corner over it, though.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

#87

Post by jedberg »

chollida1 wrote: post #81
jedberg wrote: post #33

I'm not using it at this moment, but in a couple of weeks I'll have a newborn, and I was thinking of taking pictures of him every time he is upset, and then tagging the photo with what ends up being the resolution (feed, change, or nap) and seeing if I could build a classifier that could figure out what he needs just from a picture of his angry face. Semi-related, but if anyone is using the AWS tools for their AI, pl…

:) I really like the idea and get ready for the excitement of having a family. I think the problem you'll end up having is that in some/most cases you are never really certain what the problem was. Feeding might make the crying stop but you have no way of knowing if the reason for the crying was hunger. Similar problems for sleep, diaper changing, etc. Every time the crying stops you can never be certain if you just…

I already have a kid, so I know how noisy (pun intended) the data can be. I honestly don't expect to work at all, but it will be fun to try!

Re: Ask HN: What do you use Machine Learning for?

#88

Post by nilkn »

hasbroslasher wrote: post #55
ashark wrote: post #7

I use it as something to worry about not knowing how to use, and how that might make me unemployable in a few years, while also having no obvious need for it at all, and therefore no easy avenue towards learning it, especially since it requires math skills which have completely rusted over because I also never need those, so I'd have to start like 2 levels down the ladder to work my way back up to it. I've found it v…

I'm a person (software engineer) who knows some ML and I tell this to my coworkers when they express similar sentiments: If you're worried about ML taking your job then you're not thinking straight. If the world has automated to the degree where programmers are non longer needed in 3 or 10 years then you will definitely have other things to worry about. Truckers, farmers, taxis, cops, and construction crews will like…

My understanding is that the anxiety isn't about a fear of programming being automated in the near future, but rather about ML growing into a required, essential skill for a software developer in the next few years.
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