--- title: Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again) | daily.dev description: A software developer with a background in quant finance shares their decision to learn AI/ML from first principles rather than taking shortcuts with... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/starting-ai-ml-from-zero-again--ub2rifw2n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again) | daily.dev og:description: A software developer with a background in quant finance shares their decision to learn AI/ML from first principles rather than taking shortcuts with... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/starting-ai-ml-from-zero-again--ub2rifw2n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Ub2RIFW2N.png og:image:alt: Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- [](https://daily.dev/kenx049)[ManasDasari @kenx049 • Aug 0810](https://daily.dev/kenx049) # Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again) 1 Upvote Comment Bookmark Copy Share your thoughts Post Share this post [](https://daily.dev/kenx049) [ManasDasari](https://daily.dev/kenx049) [@kenx049](https://daily.dev/kenx049) Joined Aug 17\. 2024 10 CSE Student @ Amrita | AI • Quantitative Finance | Building an OS & Open Source Projects #### Would you recommend this post? Copy link Slack WhatsApp Facebook X New Squad Copy linkShare with your friends 1 ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/starting-ai-ml-from-zero-again--ub2rifw2n","headline":"Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again)","text":"A software developer with a background in quant finance shares their decision to learn AI/ML from first principles rather than taking shortcuts with pre-trained models. They chose a Kaggle farming-simulation competition as a concrete learning target, focusing on fundamentals like gradient descent, loss functions, data quality, train/val/test splits, and understanding model failures — not just chasing leaderboard scores.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/starting-ai-ml-from-zero-again--ub2rifw2n","datePublished":"2026-08-08T10:01:58.043Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:28:40.747Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"ManasDasari","url":"https://daily.dev/kenx049","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Hsyg2qaY--/f_auto/v1785939551/avatars/avatar_InrEOOc3dY5a1YJvl8AoZ?_a=BAMAMicg0","description":"CSE Student @ Amrita | AI • Quantitative Finance | Building an OS & Open Source Projects","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}},"interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/inreooc3dy5a1yjvl8aoz","name":"ManasDasari"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ManasDasari","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/inreooc3dy5a1yjvl8aoz"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Starting AI/ML From Zero (Again)"}]} ```