If you want to become a machine learning expert

If you want to become a machine learning expert, you have to start with learning Python first.

Here is a step by step guide on what you should do:

Step 1: Basic Python Skills

If you have no knowledge of programming or a related degree, my suggestion is to start with the following free online book(if you’re into books):

• Python The Hard Way, by Zed A. Shaw

If you are not a book reader, you can search for courses online.

Step 2: Foundational Machine Learning Skills

Ok, so don’t worry, you don't need to possess a PhD-level understanding of the theoretical aspects of machine learning in order to practice, in the same manner that not all programmers require a theoretical computer science education in order to be effective coders.

Here are some basic links for you to start:

• Machine Learning - complete course notes
• Machine Learning

Step 3: Scientific Python Packages Overview

Now my guess is that you already started doing some simple Python stuff, so you would know what I’m talking about when I say you’d need to install these packages:

• numpy - mainly useful for its N-dimensional array objects
• pandas - Python data analysis library, including structures such as dataframes
• matplotlib - 2D plotting library producing publication quality figures
• scikit-learn - the machine learning algorithms used for data analysis and data mining tasks

Now that you have learned the basics, you can start doing some sample projects. Once you have finished up these steps you will be ready for getting into some deeper stuff. My understanding is that people will figure out the next steps by the time they get there!