Rust + Machine Learning: 009
This is part of my participation in the #100DaysOfCode challenge. This round, I’m learning Rust and Machine Learning (ML) and developing violette: a portable ML system and JavaScript API in Rust.
Day 009 happened Wednesday. These posts are all retroactively posted for the day prior. Generally. However, due the debauchery that took place Wednesday night, I was in no place to post — nor work, much to my chagrin — yesterday. And so, I am writing and posting today for Wednesday’s 100DaysOfCode work, and prepping my write up for today’s work.
I missed a consecutive day of coding and learning work. But I’m moving forward despite the setback.
With regard to the day 009 work, I continued working my way through Introduction to Probability. In an effort to really understand what I’m reading, I worked through a number of proofs as I came across exmples that weren’t fully written out. I’m recognizing that the authors are not particularly interested in displaying the algebra that allows them to move from one set of stated equations to another. Which is fine for me; I can use the practice.
Both my Calculus and Intro to Physics professors often decried our algebraic talent. My Calculus professor often reminded us how terrible our algebra was, and admonished us to pay careful attention to our work. “You know Calculus, your Calculus is great! It’s your algebra that sucks,” she would often say. My Physics professor emphasized the importance of being able to setup the problem correctly — sure, we lost points if we got the wrong answer due to the algebra, but his primary concern was making sure we understood the material.
You can always check your work, and have peers review your work, when it comes to real-world problems. You’re not always going fire 100% of the time on every problem on every test when you’re on your own.
All this to say that the importance of following the work meaningfully is not lost on me. Using a set of simple axioms to work through these algebraic proofs, I was able to not only follow along well enough in the text, I was able to shake out and brush off some of these cobwebs in my brain surrounding mathematics:
- You need x amount of equations to solve for x amount of variables
- Remember the sign. Always, always, always, remember the fucking sign.
I can’t tell you how many times I lost points on an assignment because I forgot to carry over a negative. I excelled in Trigonometry, often hanging out in my professor’s office doing Identities for fun. But remembering to subtract from both sides and rewriting a clause to include a negative where applicable? Apparently I was way too arrogant for that shit.
In sum, I’m slowly moving through learning probability, and reawakening my mathematics brain in the process. Cheers to day 009, and on to day 010.
009/100
