Thinking differently about . . . machine learning

Have you ever been introduced to someone then, five minutes into the conversation, realised that you can’t remember their name? If you have never had this experience, then you have a better memory than mine. Whenever that happens, it feels as if you have a window of acceptable ignorance -  a period during which it’s embarrassing but not disastrous to admit your lapse of memory. But, as time goes on, you can feel that window expiring: it becomes more and more awkward to ask the person’s name.

It can feel like this in enterprise technology too: we hear about new technologies, trends and terms every day, and there’s a period during which it seems fine to admit that you don’t understand, and to ask people to explain. But then the new concepts are everywhere, and everybody seems to using them with confidence. How did you get left out? Is it okay to say ‘I don’t understand’ now, or is it too late?

I have to admit that I felt like this for a while with the concept of machine learning.