but that's my point. knowing how to compile a program does not make me a compiler engineer. in that sense feel free to use ML tools, but don't be fooled into thinking you will get a job as an ML engineer if you do not know what the chain rule is, or why we need to take a derivative in order to optimise a loss function. in fact, don't even be fooled into thinking you will get into a ML uni degree if you don't know what the chain rule is. i actually don't understand what is the problem. spend 10 minutes reading up on it and i am sure you will get it. i think an unwarranted phobia of mathematics is what is at play here