just imagine as getting the right programs ready to run in the jupyter note and once you've


In-Depth Udacity Deep Learning Nanodegree Review

completed an assignment you submit the jupyter notebook as well as the html file and any other


files that are associated with it that you need to submit you submit that through the udacity


submit page and then a reviewer will get back to you within 24 hours with all that feedback that


i mentioned before and it's it's i i can't rave about this enough the reviewers are the best


reviewers i've ever had on any of my assignments in any of my previous education and i spent five


years at university so how much time will it take well quote on the website is 12 hours per week i


was doing a bit more i was probably in the range of 15 to 20 and i had the privilege of being able


to study study the deep learning nanodegree almost full time the reason why it took me so long was


because i was unfamiliar with some of the concepts so if you wanted to prepare better for it you'd


go over some python modules udacity have great introduction to python or the intro to machine


learning course on udacity that's another great resource to start and that will probably lessen


the amount of time you have to put in per week so if you have limited time i would say make sure


you're well and truly prepared by getting on top of your math skills and linear algebra go through


courses on khan academy that will put you in the ballpark of 12 hours per week if you're like me


and you're sort of still new to this stuff you can do it by all means you can do it but just


beware you're going to have to dedicate more time even if you are experienced it may take more time


because some of the concepts are quite difficult have the baseline of 12 hours per week and i would


probably buffer it up maybe an extra three so 15 hours per week just to be safe how did i take


notes one of the the big things people ask me in some of my videos is how do i take notes right


so i got my i always have a paper notebook with me while i'm watching things in the classroom and


i'll always have like a a bear note open like there's a note taking application for mac or


evernote or something like that next to the the classroom window what i try to do is i watch the


videos i mostly watch them on 1.5 speed just to get through them they are relatively short videos


in the deep learning nano degree so so you can get through a lot of videos really quickly what i will


often do first is if there's a summary video at the end of at the end of a class at the end of a


course or something like that or an end of a module i'll watch the summary video first and


take it and write down the takeaways from that summary video then i'll go back to the starting


video of the of the class of the module and go right back through the start and go through them


all then what i will do is if there's sort of questions relating to the videos i'll start to


take notes i'll re-watch the video and start to take notes based on what those questions are if


there's a really fundamental point that comes up in one of the videos i'll pause it write it out by


hand about what i think and then go on from there what i try not to do is be taking too many notes


while the person is speaking i try to listen while they're speaking and then let that process and


relay what i've understood from the video in my own words because otherwise you should be literally


copying down what they what they would say in summary i go to the summary lecture first get


the summary points or the objectives i'll read the objectives and write down the objectives of


the class they're the main key points and then i'll watch the videos on 1.5 speed and take away


any key points from from each of the videos but i'll try not to be writing too much while the


video is actually playing now that's my learning style it may not necessarily work for you give it


a try i found it works most effectively for me out of all the learning i've done listen first and


then write down anything you take away in your own words where and when these two can be covered


pretty easily so where of course you can study online so anywhere you have a laptop or an ios


device the udacity classroom is available there beware you won't be you do need a web browser to


do the projects and some of the questions on the lectures in the classroom you won't be able to do


the projects on an ios device at this stage that i'm aware of i did all my projects on my on my


laptop anyway when the course is it starts every i think it's every four months so it takes four


months and it starts about a new cohort starts every four months from my understanding that may


be changed that may change in the future as more and more people get interested in it there are


due dates for the projects however they are soft due dates so if you miss them by a couple of days


i missed them by a couple of days sometimes you will still be able to submit the project and get


it marked by a reviewer however there is an end date to the course say your starting date is day


one you'll have four months from day one to the end to submit all the projects usually there's a


project due every month you'll have four months to submit all the projects and if you don't submit


them all within that time frame then you you'll have to do the program again you'll have to


re-enroll and and pay that fee so let's wrap this up what's my overall verdict of it i loved the


nanodegree the deep learning nanodegree is amazing do i think you should sign up for it if you're


interested in deep learning and you want to get a great overview and start getting in and building


deep learning models udacity is a great place to start there are more and more deep learning


resources coming out online such as alternatives you could go to deep learning on corsaira or you


could go to the fast ai they are both courses that i'm going to do i'm currently doing the the


deep learning course on corsaira you can find all this out in my self-created ai master's degree


article that i wrote up if the udacity one 750 australian or 600 us may be quite expensive for


some people fast.ai is free saraj's videos or saraj raval he is amazing ai educator his videos


are all free corsaira is about 65 australian per month i'm thinking that's 55 or 50 us dollars


per month so that's a little bit cheaper you can get all the courses done a lot quicker on there


of course the deep learning an degree is a 750 upfront fee or 600 us upfront fee there are some


alternatives you can try but the deep learning nanodegree i believe gives a great introduction


to deep learning when i graduated did i feel comfortable making deep learning models from


scratch no but that is because of i i didn't go into it deep enough yet i could take the materials


from there and reproduce them and go through them again and again and practice on implementing


models of my own but what i did take away from it is i can now understand what people are talking


about in the world of deep learning to take it further what i would have to do and what you


would have to do from from the deep learning nanodegree is really work on building the models


yourself when you work on the projects in the deep learning nanodegree a lot of them i would say


50 at least are done for you so you get the skeleton project of course and then you fill


it in with your own code and different algorithms if you want to get better at implementing them


yourself you could practice on the projects and then delete the code and then rewrite it yourself


and implement implement it from scratch i'm not up to that stage yet but it is something i'm


working towards and another great takeaway from the udacity deep learning nanodegree is the access


to with a guaranteed admission to the high level nanodegrees which i'm currently doing now that's


another great reason to to do it you get an incredible overview of what deep learning does


you get experience building real world deep learning models and the latest technologies


the deep reinforcement learning module just came out i'm excited to do that and you get access to


the high level nanodegrees so they're the main two takeaways third one you have access to the slack


channel which is thousands of other students like you who are interested in technologies that are


going to change the world of software of ai of plenty of industries those are the three main


takeaways for me an out of 10 rating for the deep learning nanodegree i give it a 9 out of 10


because it's not perfect there is some improvement no course is perfect so it's it's close to it 9


out of 10 if you want to see more of exactly how i went through the deep learning nanodegree


check out my 100 days of code series on youtube or my 100 days of code series on medium which is


writing if you prefer reading it or otherwise i also have a series of articles called how i'm


learning deep learning part one two and three so far part four will come out in the near future


of how exactly i'm going through learning deep learning there's some other great resources for


you to check out how i did it and what my impressions of the deep learning nanodegree are


as well as how i'm learning the things surrounding deep learning such as the math and the python


programming that's required for it otherwise thank you so much for watching this deep learning


nanodegree review video i hope you got some value from it and if you have any more questions at all


that i haven't answered throughout the video leave a comment below and i'll answer it so that other


people can see it or if you want to send me an email my email is daniel at mrdberg.com and i'll


do my best to answer any questions that you have subscribe or leave a like if you want to see any


How to be more self-reliant: The Jester Physicist Approach

Now, the Jester physicist, they came up with the term this morning actually, well probably


not, it's probably not that original, but, ooh, listen to that sizzle, that's how you


know, that's how you know you're on the right path there.


Now it's important that these onions and mushrooms won't, will take a little bit longer than


the steak we're going to cook, so we're going to put them on first.


But where does it come from, the Jester physicist?


Well what does the Jester do?


They play around, they jump, they jive, they dance, they have a little fun.


The Jester is seen by a fool by many, but not by the people who know, and most importantly


not by himself.


And now where, where does this physicist come in?


Why, why is that helpful?


Well what does a physicist do?


They experiment, they try things, they think of the world in first principles, they take


things seriously, they have fun.


Once again we find balance at the extremes.


Now let me tell you who my favourite physicist was, or who my favourite Jester, Jester physicist


was, Richard Feynman.


Now I'm going to discuss how we would look for a new law.


In general we look for a new law by the following process.


First we guess it.


Then we, now don't laugh, that's really true.


Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what, if this is right, if this law


that we guessed is right, we see what it would imply, and then we compare those computation


results to nature.


Or we say compare to experiment or experience, compare it directly with observations to see


if it works.


You might be wondering why, why, why Daniel, why is Richard Feynman a Jester physicist?


Well, if you don't know, he discovered the theory of, what's it called, quantum electrodynamics.


Just a small little thing, you know, just how light interacts with matter.


So pretty full on in that case.


But also he liked to play jokes on people, practical jokes, like nothing malice, like


just a little bit of fun.


He liked to crack safes.


And so I think that's why a lot of people, including myself, look up to him because he


had the balance from both extremes.


He had the gesture, the gesture.


It's a funny word.


I'm trying to practice saying that.


I should have practiced saying that a bit more before this video.


Oh well.


But he looked at life through the lens of a physicist, through first principles, getting


as low as you can go, basically with quantum mechanics.


And then through the eyes of a jester, like just understanding that everything around


us is just fun and a chance to dance.


That's what every day is, right?


And so where does this tie back into self-reliance?


Well, I've got a prompt for that.


So this is where we're going to tie it in, the jester physicist approach to self-reliance.


If you imagine life as you've got four sticks and now on each of those sticks, another tool.


See this is the beautiful thing about cooking is that you've got so many tools, you can


use them for analogies.


On each of those sticks, we've got four of them, remember?


One, two, three, four.


Pretend I'm spinning this plate and I'm not going to pretend to do that because I'm going


to drop that plate, but let's pretend we've got a plate up here and the four sticks, each


of them is analogous to one, the spirit, two, health, three, wealth, four, relationships.


And now you might've heard this before about the four pillars.


You can really customize them to whatever suits your needs.


Let's get these steaks on and we'll elaborate on this theory of the jester physicist.


Look at this.


See that's a beautiful steak from a local butcher.


Shout out to Tim.


I like buying small, supporting small businesses.


Beautiful.


Now, come on back to me.


Steaks are important, but the chat's more important.


A good cook always cleans up as he goes.


Put this in the bin.


You might be thinking, okay, wash your hands.


Where does this all tie in?


Right?


Where are these?


Why?


As I said, you might've...


Where's the tea towel?


Here we go.


Burn.


Now, as I said, I'm going to turn these down to low.


You might've heard that the story we just talked about, the spirit, the health, the


wealth, relationships as the four pillars.


Now I like that analogy of them being the four pillars of life because a lot of things


in life you can sort of just deduce down into those four categories.


But my idea, I prefer it as a spinning plates because if they're just pillars, a pillar


usually stands up on its own.


But if you have to spin plates, if you have to spin the plate of the spirit, you have


to spin the plate of the health, you have to spin the plate of wealth, spin the plate


of relationships, that implies that it requires consistent effort, which is true.


And if we're moving towards self-reliance, if we're thinking of things in first principles,


if we're thinking of things, we're looking at the world through the eyes of the jester,


through the eyes of play, through the eyes of fun, through the eyes of dance, all right,


we're coming back to these four pillars, these four spinning plates, and we're bringing things


back to first principles.


Because within each of them, right, you've got the spirit.


What would be, how would a physicist approach the spirit?


They break it down into first principles.


So are you spending time getting in touch with your God, whatever that is, it could


be God, if you're from the Christian religion, it could be nothing, it could be your ethics,


if you don't believe in the higher power, it could be the universe, or if you're a technology


freak like I am, it could be artificial intelligence, maybe that's your goal.


But whatever the case, usually the trends along all of them, whatever belief you have


in terms of the spirit, there is some part of connecting heaven and earth, and by that


of course I mean metaphorically, heaven can be whatever you want, but it's connecting


some sort of energy that you can't describe into the material world.


That's what the first principles of the spirit would be.


Now whether you do that through some form of art, and if you don't have some form of


art, you definitely should, whether you do that by sitting around doing nothing, man,


this barbecue is rip-roaring hot.


But that's how the physicists would look at the spirit.


Now how would the jester look at the spirit?


Well, same thing, right?


It would still, this is why it's called the jester physicist approach, you would look


at the first principles and just realise, wow, each of these, the connecting the heaven


and earth, say for example, if I, one of my crafts that I enjoy doing is writing, and


so for me that is channelling the muse wherever it is, I have to show up and I have to play


it, I have to tap dance between different words.


Or if you're a programmer, you might want to think, how do I programme this computer


to do the thing I want?


How do I get this computer to dance for me?


We're going to get some eggs on, and then we'll go to the next spinning plate, oh, look


at that, you know what, these steaks are going to be ready sooner than I thought.


We need to get two eggs, you want an egg?


Yeah?


Alright, now the help, help from first principles, I'm going to quiz you while you're watching


this video and watching me crack these eggs, what is health from first principles?


Now this one's quite simple, things get complicated when you start to add more to the system,


see that's a, oh, that's a tip for you, health improves via negativa, what I mean by that


is actually a lot of things improve via negativa, the spirit improves via negativa, and what


I mean by that is by removal of excess, the same with health.


Now if we go to health by first principles, what is it?


Food, movement, sleep, they're the foundations, that's the physicist approach to it.


Now what about the jester approach?


Well the jester, well the jester likes to dance, that's a form of movement, but it also


is a stress relief, and that is the big, the big, big detrimental part of your health.


Alright, so the jester looks at the world, I said, again, I'll say it till I go hoarse,


in a playful manner, understands that waking up in the morning is a chance to dance.


And so if we're going back, we're approaching, we're becoming self-reliant, by self-reliant


I mean taking care of ourselves so that we can contribute back to the rest of society,


in whatever way that may be, we're taking care of our health through the eyes of the


jester physicist.


Now for food, and there's many different doctrines, as many different doctrines of eating as there


are of religions.


I mean this, this kind of meal you'd probably classify as keto, but I don't really follow


any sort of one specific doctrine of eating, and now the most important point about all


of the spinning plates is that the beautiful thing, and the most beautiful thing, the most


important most beautiful thing, that's another one for the spirit by the way, look at things


of beauty, create things of beauty.


Like there's a girl with blonde hair I see every morning when we go for morning walks,


she's got a smile that'll light up a thousand night skies and it warms my heart, so that's


one way to get in touch with spirit, look at beautiful things.


These steaks are actually nearly done.


The most important point of the spinning plates philosophy, we'll turn those right down to


low actually, is that you can start wherever you are.


So wherever you are in terms of your spirit, your health, your wealth, your relationships,


you can start there.


So what are we going back to?


Food.


If you want to approach health from first principles, of course food, what you put into


your body.


Now the simplest one, the simplest two things that I can give you for that, even after studying


nutrition and doing a whole bunch of experiments on myself of best ways to eat, is avoid things


which take multiple steps to get to you.


So for example, things that are in a packet and you might say, oh well Daniel, the eggs


you got, the eggs come in a packet.


Yes, but they have one step, they're made from a chicken.


It's simple one ingredient foods.


We've got four ingredients on this plate.


Now if you eat foods that are ultra processed and have more and more ingredients, what did


I say right at the start?


Health improves via negativa.


So you remove them.


So that's it.


Avoid processed foods.


Done.


That's tip number one for food.


And number two is eat less often.


So what time is it?


Sam?


Yeah, 12 o'clock.


12 o'clock.


Yeah, midday.


I haven't eaten yet.


So food is my reward for doing things.


And what are those things?


Whatever needs to get done.


Right?


And the same goes for sleep and movement.


Movement can be whatever you want.


It could be a dance.


Remember, we're just a business now.


So we get up every morning and we're jumping and we're driving.


It's also a proven fact that whatever you're cooking tastes better when you're dancing.


That's movement.


Just get a little active each day.


Go for a walk.


It's a basic human necessity going for a walk.


And then sleep.


It's like go to sleep when you need.


Don't sit on your smartphone while you're in bed and just make sure your room is as


dark as possible.


And so those things are, and the biggest one, remember stress.


Again, through the eyes of a jester, a physicist would look at health and break it down into


food, sleep, movement.


But the jester remembers, oh, stress, the thing you can't really measure.


That is the big one.


And so with spinning plates, what have we taken care of?


We've taken care of the spirit.


We've taken care of health.


And of course, what I've just said requires to be put into practice to be actually taken


care of.


And now wealth.


We take care of wealth or relationships.


And now why do I stress the spinning plates is kind of a, it's an engaged movement.


Well, the thing is, you're never really going to know in life is when one of those plates


is going to take a fall.


I just want to remind you to have a little thought experiment of how good your track


record is with predicting things that are going to happen.


If you can predict something, it's already the past.


The most significant events in our lives are the things we can't predict.


These steaks are done.


Look at that.


That's beautiful.


Oh, another one for food is learn to cook.


One of the best feelings in life is being able to cook a meal for yourself or cook a


meal for yourself and others and then share it.


So if you don't know how to cook, learn how to cook.


I'm going to go get a spatula and then we're up to the third plate, which is wealth.


Spatula.


Now wealth.


How much do you need?


Well, basic necessities.


The beautiful thing about life is that nature gave us most of the things that we need are


quite accessible now.


You see the curse of modernity has been told that we need far more than what we actually


do.


And so I'm not going to pretend that I'm sort of some philosophical robot here and say that


I don't indulge myself in materialistic wealth.


I bought a jet ski when I was 22 or 23 or something like that.


It cost $22,000.


Very expensive for me at the time.


Basically all of my savings because I thought I wanted, I thought if I have this jet ski,


it's going to make me happy.


It's going to fulfill my hopes and dreams and everything will be great.


Everything will be complete.


And you see, I was very quickly shown the right answer after owning it.


It's funny how, look, you chillin' out.


You don't need it.


You just need food and play.


Yeah.


It's very funny how it works like that.


You think you need something and then eventually you get it and you realize, oh wow, I didn't


actually need that thing.


And so that was the best financial decision I ever made was in investing in that because


it taught me that you know what, no matter what, no matter what the material good is,


I don't need it.


I derive pleasure from other things.


I derive pleasure from creating.


I derive pleasure from, as I said, from the other pillars, from connecting heaven and


earth.


But that doesn't mean that I'm not taking the spinning plate, the spinning plate of


wealth seriously.


If I want to be self-reliant, I need to take care of myself financially.


I need to, if I take pride in the fact that I can support my family financially, I need


to take care of my wealth.


And so what does that mean for me?


It means having enough to be able to buy food.


It means having enough to be able to pay bills.


It means having enough to keep working on the things I want to work on.


Now again, your spinning plate may be higher or lower than mine.


Now the trap is, is when one of them gets too high.


So for example, a really easy one to understand is when someone like me, for example, when


I bought the jet skis, when my wealth, my material wealth plate was getting really high


and I'm trying to spin it up here.


And so what happened to all the other plates?


They all fell off.


And so what you'll see sometimes, or fairly often actually, is when someone is dedicating,


for example, they're trying to earn too much money and they're going up here, the wealth's


going up here.


Oh yeah.


What happens?


The wealth plate falls off.


The relationship plate falls off.


And see, that's why I like the analogy of the spinning plates instead of the pillars,


because a pillar, one gets higher, it doesn't usually mean that the others fall over.


But if you're a jester physicist trying to maintain spinning four different plates, if


you focus too much on one, the other ones go down.


And so finally, relationships.


Now here's a great one to reflect on or to remember why it's always a work in progress,


the spinning plates and why self-reliance is always something you have to...


It's an engaged activity.


It's not just a passive activity.


Let's finish this off.


We've taken care of the first three.


The final one is relationships.


All of these are as important as each other, right?


And depending on where you are in life, one may be more important than the other.


So for example, at the moment, my most important are spirit, health, wealth.


I've been focused on them a lot.


Relationships of course, but the relationships with my family, with myself are pretty sound


at the moment.


Who knows?


That may change in the future.


But in the past, I'll give you an example of a track record.


So about five years ago, I had a girlfriend, significant other.


So that's part of relationships.


We're looking at relationships from first principles.


Do you have a significant other?


How are your relationships with your friends and family?


How are your relationships with yourself?


That would be how the physicist breaks it down into first principles.


And so five years ago, I had a girlfriend and we moved into her apartment.


It's really hot.


We just moved furniture.


So it's like, no, we're not going to unpack.


We're just going to lie on the ground, lay on the ground.


We were like, had one of those moments.


You know those moments.


If you've ever been in love, you probably understand this.


It's when you're so in love, you don't know what to do with yourself.


That's the stage we were at, the honeymoon stage.


And looking into each other's eyes on the floor of this new apartment, sweaty and just


like, where do you see yourself in five years?


And I said, with full certainty with you.


And look at it now.


Five years later, we broke up and life goes on.


And so that, I believe we are finished here.


But that is a perfect example of why if you want to become more self-reliant, if you want


to take care of your spirit, your health, your wealth and your relationships, that it's


an engaged process and it requires you to sign up.


Right?


So that is a challenge.


And that's where the beautiful thing is, as I said, man doesn't need to wait to improve


himself.


So if one of your spinning plates is teetering, it's losing balance.


You can always work on that.


You can always bring it up to meet the others.


Look at this meal.


I'm so excited for this meal.


You excited?


But yeah, that's my tip for the day.


If you want to become more self-reliant, if you want to have a good time approaching life,


approach it from both extremes.


Pretend that you're a physicist, look at things in terms of first principles, break it down,


simple steps.


But at the same time, don't get so serious.


It's never, the people who get too serious are the ones whose plates, one of their plates,


one of their spinning plates goes way too high and it forgets about all the rest.


So that's where the jester comes in and realizes that, oh, I was getting a bit foolish there.


Raising that plate a bit too high.


I lost control of all the other ones.


Now it's no fun playing with broken toys.


So yeah, keep dancing.


Keep cooking your own food if you're not.