[HN Gopher] The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
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       The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning
        
       Author : AlexeyBrin
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2026-02-08 14:01 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (mitpress.mit.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (mitpress.mit.edu)
        
       | senthil_rajasek wrote:
       | From 2023,
       | 
       | "Pub date: February 21, 2023"
        
       | rllearner wrote:
       | I'm a huge fan of project based learning like the approach taken
       | in this book. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to introduce
       | early stage students to Scheme before Python, or deep learning
       | before calculus.
       | 
       | I studied pure math in college, and we were required to take 2
       | "Computer Science" classes as part of that program. Mainly
       | memorizing textbook algorithms and data structure implementations
       | in Java. I hated programming for years after that, until during
       | graduate school I came up with a project of my own that
       | organically required knowledge of Matlab and later Python. I
       | loved programming after that.
       | 
       | I hope books like this can help new students avoid the trough of
       | disillusionment that can sometimes happen if you're forced to
       | learn a cool subject (like programming) in a very uncool way.
       | 
       | Personally, I would not recommend this book to a young person
       | interested in deep learning and programming (based on the table
       | of contents). I would probably recommend they first learn
       | calculus and use Python to make plots while doing so. Then read
       | Fleuret's "The Little Book of Deep Learning" and try to implement
       | simple models in PyTorch.
        
         | Onavo wrote:
         | This is also pretty good
         | 
         | https://www.sscardapane.it/alice-book/
        
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       (page generated 2026-02-10 23:00 UTC)