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How To “Ultralearn” Data Science — Part 1
This is a short guide, based on the book “Ultralearning”, applied to data science
Benedict Neo
Oct 30, 2019 · 6 min read
Photo by Sean Lim on Unsplash
Welcome back to the Ultralearning Data Science series!
Part 1 - Introduction on Ultralearning & Metalearning
Part 2 - On removing distractions and finding focus
Part 3 - On optimization learning
Part 4 - On deep understanding and experimentation
Summary - For those in a hurry
Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mark Cuban. What is one thing that all these
ultra-successful people have in common?
They are all ultralearners.
Elon Musk is a voracious learner who utilizes a semantic tree to remember all the
things he reads. And he can absorb information from others.
Though the success and breakthroughs he achieved might seem impossible, we can
apply his framework to our personal lives as well and realize dreams.
“One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make
sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before
you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.” — Elon Musk
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are both incredibly curious and have an insatiable desire
to learn.
Warren Buffett invests 80% of his time in reading and thinking in his career. Bill Gates
reads a book a week and takes two-week vacations just for reading.
“Intellectual capital will always trump financial capital.” — Paul Tudor Jones, self-made
billionaire entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.
. . .
An Introduction to Ultralearning
What is ultralearning?
Ultralearning is a vigorous, self-motivated methodology for learning that enables
people to quickly and efficiently master difficult skills.
With a structured approach to learning, they become ultralearners and achieve
extraordinary feats that might seem implausible at first, but in fact, anyone can adopt
this ultralearning strategy and realize unrealistic ideas and dreams.
. . .
Principles of Ultralearning
Metalearning
Metalearning — The process of learning how to learn.
Metalearning is an imperative concept when it comes to learning. It is the first step
every person must take before initiating the learning process.
Learning is harder than it sounds, many people think learning is just absorbing
information at random, then spewing it out in a test.
But in reality, learning is tough. I say this because schools and colleges have turned into
a business and the act of learning has become a lost art. Students are merely studying
to pass a test, and no longer learning for the sake of learning. Ask a student “why”
instead of “what” and they’ll likely struggle.
Concerning data science, watching hours of YouTube videos, reading dozens of
programming books and registering for expensive courses online alone is not learning.
A structured framework is required.
A deep understanding of the fundamentals is needed. And a big-picture understanding
of the field.
. . .
Big Picture Understanding
Metalearning is all about looking for the big picture, then using it to devise your
optimal learning strategy
Big-picture thinking essentially means the complete, overarching story or idea. This
phrase usually implies that one should think of the future, or think of other parallel
factors, and not emphasizing the small details.
To grasp the concept of big-picture understanding, let’s apply this concept to data
science. Data Science is the sexiest job of the 21st century. But most data scientists
jump into the field without thinking clearly about what data science is all about.
In a nutshell, data science is uncovering the hidden value of data
Data is growing exponentially and data scientists are imperative to make use of all this
data. From intuition-based decision-making, we are transitioning into fact-based
decision-making.
Data scientists have the arduous task of helping organizations make the right decision
with the insights they gather from the data.
Thus, using the right skills and the right datasets, a data scientist engenders a datadriven world.
. . .
Strategies for Metalearning Data Science
Photo by Tabea Damm on Unsplash
1. Create a metalearning map
Break down your topic into three categories:
Concepts
Facts
Procedures
Concepts
Concepts in data science would be training and education which are prerequisites for
data science.
These include a solid foundation in mathematics (statistics, probability, linear algebra,
and calculus), programming, machine learning, and AI, and business analysis.
Facts
Facts in data science will then be the textbook stuff involved in data science, such as
the facts in mathematics and machine learning that you have to deeply understand to
the point where you can teach it to other people.
Facts involved should not be memorized as formal education has brainwashed us to do
but should be comprehended at the atomic level, where you can translate jargon into
an easier language for the masses to understand.
Procedures
Procedures involved are the fundamentals in data science — business understanding,
data acquisition, and preparing (mining and cleaning), deployment, modeling, and
visualization.
These fundamentals have subfields as well and each is crucial in the procedure of
discovering the value of data.
2. Identify challenging aspects of learning
Data science is not an easy field. One has to have business acumen and great
communication to be able to translate data into something that people can understand
and comprehend well. To be a data scientist is almost like a translator of the messy data
in the world.
A few challenging aspects of learning are mathematics, especially statistics that play a
huge role in data science, machine learning concepts (which usually requires masters
and doctoral degrees), and excellent communication.
This part is ambiguous and arbitrary as everyone struggles with different things. So,
the above is just my opinion and does not apply to everyone else.
3. Techniques for overcoming them
The Feynman Technique is highly effective when learning something as vast and
intricate as data science. Machine learning concepts and facts in mathematics can be
easily stored in your brain with this technique.
For communication, there is no one simple way to suddenly be better at
communicating and becoming a world-class communicator. Some of us have the innate
capabilities to convince people with our speech, and some of us learn it throughout
life.
Communication, as with knowledge, is a skill we accumulate as we go through the ebbs
and flow of life. One piece of advice for communication is to just use simple words
instead of jargon so that all can understand the results of your data.
Also, be sure to personalize your presentation according to the audience, as data
engineers have a better understanding of data science compared to a manager or
stakeholder.
A framework you can use for communicating data
1. Your understanding of the business problem.
2. How to measure business impact — which business metrics do your model results
align to?
3. What data is or was available — if appropriate, reference which data would be
helpful to collect.
4. The initial solution hypothesis.
5. The solution/model — use examples and visualizations.
6. The business impact of the solution and clear action items for stakeholders.
4. Establish your learning methodology
With the internet, learning data science is no longer expensive and limited. There are
vast amounts of resources that have democratized data science for all kinds of people.
Akin to the problems faced when learning, this part is also dependent on the
individual. Some might prefer to learn with videos on YouTube and others with online
courses such as Udemy and Coursera.
Nonetheless, having a learning methodology is imperative so that you can personalize
the way you learn, based on your preference and ability.
A good tip for learning data science is to just start with hands-on projects such as linear
regression, logistic regression, decision trees, etc.
This is because many people make the mistake of focusing on mathematics and take in
tons of facts but fail to acquire hands-on skills from the vital start.
. . .
Action Plan
Now that you have brief exposure to ultralearning, metalearning, and big-picture
understanding. Spend 5–10 minutes reflecting on whether you have been learning
with these concepts in mind. If not, there no better time to change than now.
Formulate your metalearning strategy according to by following the 4 steps below and
start learning the right way today!
Thanks for reading and read part two below!
How To “Ultralearn” Data Science — Part 2
Part 2 on ultralearning data science, emphasizing focus
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