When you start something new....

"So for the first week of this module, I started watching all these videos and all I can think of is how slow is it. I want to start coding already!!! "

When we start something new, we are extremely eager to just jump in. That is what I have been facing through all these videos. After finishing the first segment, I observed that all they have talked so far is how to set up the environment. I also have a lot of these packages installed. I want to skip these but the instructors talk about some interesting applications about these concepts, so I do feel that I will miss something in later stages if I skip these initial videos. What I did like about this is process is that initially while setting it up, I did miss a few steps or did not understand why I was doing it. This helped me cover all my bases. 

It also helped me achieve another goal, help organize my code for publishing it to GitHub.  It realized you need to start off with the right file structure and then push that to GitHub first. I used to be very intimidated with the idea of how to publish and maintain code on GitHub. But a lot of it just goes into initially setting it up but saves a lot of hassle later. This process has helped me acquire an additional skill.

I did enjoy some of the initial videos though, especially the ones talking about the information explosion and the exponential growth in the accumulation of data. Machine learning is a tool that can be used to make sense of this mammoth amounts of data. It tied in well with the other courses I have studied as a part of my master's program. Throughout the past year, we have explored different subjects which deal with managing information. We have learned about how the information explosion happened, how to find ways to carefully use metadata to implement systems to manage information. These subjects give learners a different perspective: how to turn all this information into actionable intelligence. This can be an analysis of the data to make better business decisions, or to automate processes, and to use the modern computing power to find interesting patterns in data which otherwise would have been difficult to identify. The examples discussed in these videos aided to my understanding of the subject and their practical application which I might have overlooked in my previous study of the classroom coursework. I do see important differences in this course in comparison to the classroom course. It is very application focused and I think it will be direct as opposed to the in-depth study I have done in classroom courses.