Interesting Things Learned as a Student of Machine Learning

If you have spent time either formally or informally learning machine learning, no doubt that you have been amazed at some point both at what machine learning is capable of, and your ability to learn it. At the same time, I was somewhat upset to learn that machine learning is, in fact, not magic, and actually based on sound principles. But that is beside the point. The student of machine learning can often also glean all sorts of tangential knowledge when studying and practicing, the "collateral knowledge," if you will. For your consideration, here are a few things I've picked up along the way, which I assuredly would not know if not for hours spent exploring and applying the craft of machine learning.