Current stage: noob-level math grind Learned for: 9h total Satisfied? Kinda

Calculus is trickier than I thought! 😫 The top-level concepts are simple to grasp, but there seems to be a maze of formulas and computation tricks to get through.

I’ve spent the majority of my time doing exercises (like calculating limits that use trig functions) to really get it down. One thing that books do a better job at than courses is providing extensive math notation.

Props to 3b1b’s essence of calculus for making the visuals click.

I’m debating whether Calculus is something I can ‘sprint’ through. Beginning to think it will take time to ‘marinate’.

I’m curious: How important are the calculations and remembering formulas going to be for coding (ML)? How much can I skip (or sprint through) here without long-term consequences? Any general tips?

Anyway, expect the next progress report in 2 days 🫡

Things I’ve done well:

  1. Trained both days (arms and chest) 💪
  2. Networked a bit
  3. Slowed the tempo a bit to reduce stress

Bad stuff:

  1. Terrible sleep (<7h total & <1h deep sleep) due to staying awake too long
  2. Ate food that caused me brain fog (ate at restaurants a lot)

Valuable comments received below:

“ML is mostly linear algebra you shouldnt need more than a basic understand of calculus, the tricky part is stats and should be most of your focus” - kaio ken

“Hmm. Derivatives important (don’t need to memorize tho lol), chain rule is literally backprop, uhhh besides that idk how much calculus I do. If you want to do optimization it is probably more important, but if you’re interested in being an MLE that’s probably enough” - Kai