Re:Why becoming a data scientist is not easier than you think
by upquark on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @10:16AM
(#4659910)
Not disagreeing with your second paragraph, but just wanted to point out that Machine Learning has matured way beyond the "unprincipled hacks" phase, and as was correctly pointed out above, can be seen as a direction in applied statistics. If you look at a modern course in multivariate statistics, there's a significant overlap with ML (http://goo.gl/GTDUC).
I think people's expectation of a new scientific or engineering discipline to be "sexy" or "magic" is simply a sign of widespread ignorance of the field, so it's a good thing when something becomes less "magic" and more "real". I bet airplanes were "magic" until we learned how to fly them consistently and safely :)
Re:Why becoming a data scientist is not easier than you think
by mattrepl on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @10:07AM
(#4659868)
Machine learning is full of hacks to connect theory to producing results given constraints. That's not too different from hacks that are done for the sake of performance in graphics rendering.
But in college you never get to apply them to real problems. I think if you apply them to real problems you'll have the revelation. Especially when you try other approaches first. But actually applying them requires domain knowledge, data cleaning skills, and programming skills beyond what many people have (certainly myself as an undergraduate).