A Data-Driven Approach to Choosing Machine Learning Algorithms

Last Updated on April 4, 2018

If You Knew Which Algorithm or Algorithm Configuration To Use,
You Would Not Need To Use Machine Learning

There is no best machine learning algorithm or algorithm parameters.

I want to cure you of this type of silver bullet mindset.

I see these questions a lot, even daily:

• Which is the best machine learning algorithm?
• What is the mapping between machine learning algorithms and problems?
• What are the best parameters for a machine learning algorithm?

There is a pattern to these questions.

You generally do not and cannot know the answers to these questions beforehand. You must discover it through empirical study.

There are some broad brush heuristics to answer these questions, but even these can trip you up if you are looking to get the most from an algorithm or a problem.

In this post, I want to encourage you to break free of this mindset and take hold of a data-driven approach that is going to change they way you approach machine learning.