Open thread, 30 June 2014- 6 July 2014

DanielDeRossi

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Previous thread

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one.

3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.

4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.

I struggle with an issue that I would call, for a lack of a better term, an intellectual fear of missing out.

Some context: I studied and work in a traditional, old-fashioned area of engineering (civil). I like my job. On the other hand, reading about things discussed here and in similar places - progress in software, applied statistics, AI, automatization, Big Data analysis, machine learning etc. - makes me want to participate somehow in those grand changes happening during my lifetime. However, the sheer amount of available MOOCs and books kind of scares me (I have no idea where to start, or what exactly I should learn to profit from it) and makes me wonder whether I could ever achieve a level of competence that would make the time spent on learning this stuff a good investment. I'd like my self-learning to be at least partially related to and useful in what I do professionally (construction management and supervision). Does anyone else have a similar problem?

Or, to put it a bit differently: could you point me to any interesting modern staistics/AI//data analysis-related skills valuable to learn for an engineer working in an unrelated area?

I studied and work in a traditional, old-fashioned area of engineering (civil, structural design focus instead of construction management).

I feel very similar. This is just a re-skin of the old Chiefs and Indians problem, I've accepted that our role is to stay in our fields and be the best Indians we can, the world is changing, leaders are taking things places, but someone still needs to build the data-centers. We are missing out, but in the greener grass on the other side of the fence kind of way, simple envy.

I like the plan to apply the advances in oth... (read more)

6TylerJay12y

I have the same feeling. Honestly, I think it's really just a darker way of looking at curiosity. Curious people want to learn things, but there's a mix of positive and negative motivations for it–FOMS being the negative motivation. I've been taking MOOCs and doing self-directed study for a few years now and I've learned a ton. The math and physics have not had any practical applications for me (I work on the business end of a technology startup), but the programming and data-science HAS been useful. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, using only knowledge gained from MOOCs and then some independent practice, I built a supplementary Rails application to automate a part of my client onboarding process that now my entire team uses. It's probably saved my company a few hundred man-hours of time (of highly skilled people, so that was worth some big money). It also felt awesome to do. As far as recommendations go, it really depends on what you're looking to do with it. I don't regret learning more math and physics, but it's definitely been less rewarding because I can't use it to do anything. The positive feedback from learning programming has encouraged me to learn more and now I'm pretty good. I'm working on some side-projects and always looking for ways to automate parts of my job and our business. Are you looking to change careers ever? Do you have time for side projects? Are there any inefficiencies you see within our current company that you think you could improve with some more knowledge? If so, go for those. If not, then don't worry about it and just learn what you're driven to learn. I will tell you this: You'll never become an expert without doing it as a full-time job (or a full-time hobby I suppose). While I am "pretty good", I know that if I worked with a team of skilled people I could learn from and had new novel challenges each day, my skills would skyrocket. So if career change is an option or if you have side projects you want to do, then take t

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