District Data Labs - An Introduction to Machine Learning with Python

For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth. The impulse to ingest more data is our first and most powerful instinct. Born with billions of neurons, as babies we begin developing complex synaptic networks by taking in massive amounts of data - sounds, smells, tastes, textures, pictures. It's not always graceful, but it is an effective way to learn. As data scientists, the trick is to encode similar learning instincts into applications, banking more on the volume of data that will flow through the system than on the elegance of the solution (see also these discussions of the Netflix prize and the "unreasonable effectiveness of data").