Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

kidger.site

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–108 of 108 posts

Re: Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

#101

Post by drdunce »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #56
sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

If anyone's reading over this and feels "Gosh, I'll never be an ML dev; this is way too much": I don't know most of that list, and still manage to be a productive researcher. I learn what I need as I go. That's probably the optimal strategy. I'm skeptical of first-principles learning. It's great to immerse yourself in theory, but when you've gone all the way to "topology" you've probably gone beyond the limit of what…

I feel like I know up to 75% of that stuff and can't get hired even for entry level data science.

Same. Have the PhD also. Never even go to first round of interviews, or hear back.

And to get to this level of understanding takes around a decade. Feels like a huge waste of time. The things you could be in a decade of work...

Re: Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

#102

Post by drdunce »

dekhn wrote: post #23
eddsh1994 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

because the very best machine learning models are distilled from postdoc tears.

I think every significant model has come from industry. us postdocs just tweak hyperparameters and publish answers to questions about them that no one is ever likely to ask

It's like the "will it blend" series, but for machine learning

Re: Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

#103

Post by culopatin »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #56
sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

If anyone's reading over this and feels "Gosh, I'll never be an ML dev; this is way too much": I don't know most of that list, and still manage to be a productive researcher. I learn what I need as I go. That's probably the optimal strategy. I'm skeptical of first-principles learning. It's great to immerse yourself in theory, but when you've gone all the way to "topology" you've probably gone beyond the limit of what…

I feel like I know up to 75% of that stuff and can't get hired even for entry level data science.

In my field we’d never hire someone with a PhD as entry level, we’d move right past them. It’s maybe because none of us have PhDs and so we think of you guys as gods that should be above us and we don’t deserve you and we can’t pay you enough. Maybe the same thing is happening?

Re: Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

#105

Post by bayesian_horse »

culopatin wrote: post #103
bayesian_horse wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I know up to 75% of that stuff and can't get hired even for entry level data science.

In my field we’d never hire someone with a PhD as entry level, we’d move right past them. It’s maybe because none of us have PhDs and so we think of you guys as gods that should be above us and we don’t deserve you and we can’t pay you enough. Maybe the same thing is happening?

I don't have a phd degree and I'm not at the same level as someone who has that degree, actually. Just knowing the things that are listed in that post doesn't get you a degree. I'm also circumspect on what I mention in an application for that reason.

Re: Just know stuff (or, how to achieve success in a machine learning PhD)

#106

Post by culopatin »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #105
culopatin wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my field we’d never hire someone with a PhD as entry level, we’d move right past them. It’s maybe because none of us have PhDs and so we think of you guys as gods that should be above us and we don’t deserve you and we can’t pay you enough. Maybe the same thing is happening?

I don't have a phd degree and I'm not at the same level as someone who has that degree, actually. Just knowing the things that are listed in that post doesn't get you a degree. I'm also circumspect on what I mention in an application for that reason.

Oh sorry I misunderstood your post in the mental context I had at the time.
Post reply on HN