learning is hard and slow

learning is hard and slow

I've finished the second book in a series of machine learning documents that is recommended for beginners. It is almost the same as the first one and contains things that I already knew. Hence I recognized how hard and long the pursuit of knowledge is.

It takes months for a baby to learn their first word, with hundreds to thousands of attempts and corrections from the parents. The acquisition of other skills is the same: we must try and adjust many times before we "learn" those skills perfectly. There are some ways to learn better than others, but there are no shortcuts in developing knowledge.

When I studied machine learning, I found that artificial intelligence acts the same as natural one. The machine has a ton of data to learn from, but how many times does it need to process that information? Like us, it reads the data again and again, tries and adjusts itself until insights are archived. The learning process of a computer is mostly not complex, but the summary of trillions simple calculations.

In summary, all the intelligence systems are learning in a dummy way. And it may be the only way possible for us.

007 - jaken - 06/11/2023

Hiking Ba Den Mountain

Hiking Ba Den Mountain

After a long time, today I returned to Ba Den Mountain for trekking and climbing.

There were years when my friends and I visited this place monthly. We usually planned a weekend bike trip to Tay Ninh province, hiked to the top of the mountain, and camped there. Sometimes we just challenged ourselves with a one-day trek and then explored the city. In my memory, It often rained when I was in the middle of the trail. And I keep in mind the cold water on my burning muscles, the wet tent in the howling of the wind.

We suddenly stopped that travel habit. Perhaps some of us got married and needed to spend time with families, or health conditions prevented one member from embarking on a new journey. And when I heard about a cable car and a large construction project on top of the mountain, I lost the desire to visit Mrs. Black again.

Today, I had a chance to visit the mountain again with new friends. Everything seemed the same, except my weaker muscle. The building is still under construction and looks out of place among the trees. However, it does have some positive uses: half of the trekking team used the cable car to return to the foot of the mountain when they ran out of stamina in the morning.

006 - jaken - 05/11/2023

randomness in a banana hand

randomness in a banana hand

I have a big plate in my kitchen where I usually put a hand of bananas that stays still there and waiting to be ripe.

Throughout the day, I go around and look for the yellow, flecked with brown. Ideally, the bananas would be ripe one by one. And I could have each at its most delicious state.

But life is impermanent. Sometimes the ripening process was too long, and I had to consume a greenish or light green fruit. Sometimes when I woke up, all the hand was ripped and I had to find some ways to handle it before it became overriped and rotten.

In a positive view, these bananas teach me a lesson about expectations versus reality, how to handle unstable phenomena in a dynamic world.

And how to make banana ice cream.

005 -jaken - 04/11/2023

most of thoughts are just rearrangements of our internal biases

most of thoughts are just rearrangements of internal biases

Once while I was thinking, I paused and read my ideas. None of them were new or fresh, all had been fed to my brain sometimes through books, stories, or other sources. Then I found myself thinking again what others had already imagined, lost in a maze of ingrained prejudices.

Gradually, the feeling of déjà vu grew. I would often have an idea and remember I had thought of it before. For sure my thought was neither deep nor clear. Therefore It came back again and obsessed me for an obvious ending that I couldn't afford.

Does this game of the mind serve a purpose, or do we simply confound ourselves in complex illusions?

004 - jaken -  03/11/2023

Tofu’s life changed dramatically when she moved to the countryside.

 Tofu’s life changed dramatically when she moved to the countryside.

Overall, she has more time, space, and friends to enjoy. However, everything comes with a trade-off. There are new rules she must follow and risks she has to confront.

In the past, Tofu could enjoy delicious meals twice a day and sleep on a comfortable mattress. Her physical and emotional well-being were taken care of, and her schedule was the top priority in Tofu's house.

But now, having left the city to live closer to nature, she is just another little dog. Meals are served only once a day, and she must eat quickly or risk losing some of her food to other dogs.

She has a larger space to run around in, but dangers are also closer to her, ranging from small insects to unfamiliar humans.

In her eyes, I see her love for this newfound freedom, and perhaps a hint of nostalgia for her urban life?

003 - jaken - 02/11/2023

Andriy Burkov The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book

 The book is quite succinct and clear. It could be a good start for beginner, but I'm not sure pure beginner will fully understand it. 

If you start from zero, some online visual course may be better for getting new concepts about machine learning, then you can read this book...

crypto treated me so well

crypto treated me so well

From the time I learned about cryptocurrency in 2016. Two bear markets have passed, and I haven’t stopped researching crypto at any moment.

When I first knew about it, crypto gave me a good new job. Then it taught me about investing and managing money. That was the time when I learned a lot about myself and human nature, more than in many previous years.

In the dark time of the market, I didn't abandon crypto. And during the dark time of my life, crypto lit up my path.

I am so in love with crypto that I fear I might be blinded. Will this love story end happily or tragically?

002 - jaken - 01/11/2023