Ask HN: I'm getting a new job that involves machine learning. How do I kick ass?

Hi, machine learning PhD here - one way you can start is by brushing up on some fundamentals. A book such as Machine Learning, by Thom M. Mitchell is a reasonable start.<p>Also, in terms of applying ML, you could scoot through Andrew Ng's Machine Learning Coursera course (not sure if it's running at the moment, though).<p>Finally... One tip – typically I have always found that when you want to start apply ML to real-world problemss, start simple and only iterate when the results of your approach are not <i>satisficing</i>. This is usually because all the bleeding edge ML research/techniques don't consider a shit-load of real-world issues, like scaleability, applicability to wide-range of problem, unstructured or noisy data and so on.

I wonder how did they hire you when you had no prior experience? You're lucky. I also want such job.

How about checking the videos from the machine learning class on coursera by Andrew Ng?

Not well known but there are some interesting videos on Videolectures <a href="http://videolectures.net/site/search/?q=machine+learning" rel="nofollow">http://videolectures.net/site/search/?q=machine+learning</a>

Hi. Congrats on your new job!<p>As far as advice/suggestions, please consider sharing a few more specifics, so the community may better understand where you're coming from.