No way. Does it use Scheme? EDIT: Half Life 3 confirmed: "Presents key ideas of machine learning using a small, manageable subset of the Scheme language"
Yes. At least from the preview.
The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
21–30 of 102 posts
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#22Why is this book so special, could someone enlighten me?
this series of books has an unusual pedagogical style, with a big "bang for the buck" in terms of building up complex systems from basic steps there is zero fluff, almost zero narration the books are basically just input output pairs of "now do this, and now that happens" they are basically a sort of brain data dump for people who can think with computer code
> people who can think with computer code
In particular, Scheme. If your language of choice is, say, Python, then you'll want to get a primer on Scheme before reading this particular book. Maybe by starting at the beginning of the series.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#23Why is this book so special, could someone enlighten me?
Books in the little series are all about "learning by doing", and teach using the Socratic method (question/answer). Each concept is introduced with small problems that build upon each other. You are forced to get your hands dirty from the beginning, passive learning is not really an option. For most people, I think this helps facilitate a much deeper understanding than just reading a text. I always had trouble with…
ok cool! thanks for explaining. do you think a beginner in the world of AI and programming would benefit from this DL book as well?
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#24Are there other books written in this format?
I know _why wrote his books as a conversation between two foxes.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#25If this is anything like the others in the series. I really like the style of the others; it is a really good way of learning for me. And the little prover&typer was when I already was well versed in the theory but they were really good to work through nonetheless.
So yep, must have. If you haven’t read the rest, they are really must haves imho.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#26The initial preview is a little disappointing because it feels like it does a great job displaying the pedagogical style but not enough to demonstrate the pedagogical value (i.e. whether this resource actually does a good job teaching a complex topic).
Given the wealth of information and the problem of appraising it all, I don't think it helps this book that it costs $55 and requires the reader to learn an esoteric language (for the field), when there are so many educational books and lecture series by experts in the field that you can find freely available online.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#27Nothing little about a 450 page book, but still... I have to buy it.
i think the little part is the chapter sizes on purpose
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#28The initial preview is a little disappointing because it feels like it does a great job displaying the pedagogical style but not enough to demonstrate the pedagogical value (i.e. whether this resource actually does a good job teaching a complex topic). Given the wealth of information and the problem of appraising it all, I don't think it helps this book that it costs $55 and requires the reader to learn an esoteric l…
The great thing about Scheme is that you can learn it in less than 10 minutes and focus on the ideas.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#29Are there other books written in this format? I know _why wrote his books as a conversation between two foxes.
Yes, a whole series. Look until the author for more.
Re: The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
#30Wow, I would really like to get this book to complete my set of the Little Schemer, the Seasoned Schemer and the Reasoned Schemer. But 55$ is almost twice as expensive as the other books. Yes, it is bigger than those but still... Have to think about this for a while :)
The little schemer is $40 now, reasoned schemer is $30, and the little typer is $38 (about twice as thick as the other two).
I had to think on the little schemer, but grabbed it because my ten year old said that the little typer was "interesting", and I thought he might learn something from it.
Probably should finish working through what I have before getting another, though.