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2023 has just been passed. A lot of things happened during this year. It was a roller-coaster year, and I want to share a short story with you. It is about what I learned during the last days of 2023, but it summarizes my whole 2023. It is the gradient descent process.
31 December 2023, I have just finished mathematics for a machine learning and data science course from DeepLearningAI. It was a challenging course, but fortunately, I have managed to finish the course. The course mainly talked about the mathematics fundamentals of machine learning such as linear algebra, optimization, and also statistics. There were a lot of topics in that course, but interestingly one of the topics caught my attention, not mathematically, but philosophically. It was the concept of gradient descent.
Move with small steps, iteratively, and eventually, you will be in a better condition.
The goal of the gradient descent process is to find the lowest point for the given equation. This lowest point represents the best condition for machine learning. Much like us isn’t it? Consistency brings you closer to what you want to achieve.
Every case has a different equation.
In the world of machine learning, almost every problem is resulting in different configurations for machine learning models. The reason is simple, each problem is different. Sometimes it is a linear problem, a quadratic problem, or other polynomial problem. And what does it have to do with us? Well, you might find better wisdom, but for me, it’s about knowing the nuts and bolts of your problem. Then, at the end of the day, you have to move with small steps iteratively to solve your problem.
To achieve the best result, try different ways.
In gradient descent, sometimes the ‘ball’ is stuck in the middle of the line and it thinks that it reached the lowest point. But in truth, there is another point that is lower than the ‘ball’ position.
The solution? Try a lot of ways. Try from the left, middle, right, semi-right, semi-left, and other sides. You will get there sometime.
I am by no means, an expert in life. Every day, I am still figuring out how to achieve the best for myself. But one thing that I know, is that I need to move forward, constantly, cleverly, and repeatedly.
Thank you, and I wish you the very best of this year.
どうぞよろしくおねがいします。
Irfanda H.S