From Developer to ML Entrepreneur Case Study | Sramana Mitra

The 1Mby1M Methodology is based on case studies. In each course, Sramana Mitra shares the tribal knowledge of tech entrepreneurs by giving students the rare seat at the table with the entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders who provide the most instructive perspectives on how to build a thriving business. Through these conversations, students gain access to case studies exploring the alleys of entrepreneurship. Sramana’s synthesis of key learnings and incisive analysis add great depth to each discussion.

There are over six million students enrolled in Machine Learning courses on Udemy. The most daring will try to start their own businesses.

I believe, strongly, that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial capitalism can be democratized, and wealth can be created in the middle of the pyramid using capitalistic principles. In the next 2-3 decades, the potential for distributed capitalism is very high and the outcome should be extremely positive around the world. That is the mission upon which my current work with One Million by One Million is based.

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Machine Learning are going to be at the forefront of this immense burst of energy.

Let’s talk about the field of medicine. If you think about what a doctor needs to do to diagnose an illness, she needs to consider all the symptoms, take into account all the test results, consider all the treatment options, factor in all the side-effects of various medications and their interplay with other medications the patient is already taking.

This is, effectively, a multivariate optimization problem that a doctor has to do in her head. And, she needs to keep up with all the new research and advances in medical science, and factor those in as well. The field of medicine is full of incorrect diagnosis and mistreatment of illnesses. Now, if you replace this whole process with software, which IBM is trying to do with their Watson supercomputer, medical diagnosis becomes a truly scientific, deterministic process.

I can tell you, if I have the option of being diagnosed by software versus a human doctor, I would always prefer software. It would be far more accurate.

In the One Million by One Million online curriculum, a long time ago, I decided to put in a line as a joke: “We’re working on a chip that can be implanted in your brain and it will transfer ALL the entrepreneurial knowledge from my brain to yours. However, this chip is not quite ready yet. So, in the meantime, please study the curriculum and learn the methodology of entrepreneurship that we have designed.”

Well, little did I know that this would cease to be a joke!

In fact, in the next decade or two, perhaps, this sort of implant will become the future of education.

Today, if you want to become a Computer Scientist, you go to university and get trained in Algorithms, Data Structures, Computer Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, etc. You learn a set of programming languages. You learn how to debug your code. You learn how to architect a system. So on and so forth.

Or, you can also take those courses from a MOOC like Udemy, EdX or Coursera, and take advantage of the possibilities offered by online learning.

To become a doctor, you go to Medical School.

To learn business, you go to Business School.

But in the world that we are resolutely marching towards, this may very well cease to be how education is imparted. Education may become a surgical implant, rather than something acquired through many years of rigorous toil.

Education, thus, may neutralize the advantages enjoyed today by high IQ individuals, and make it possible for everyone to be extraordinarily knowledgeable in his or her chosen field or fields.

With one custom, highly personalized implant, you could be speaking five languages, have mastery over the entire field of medicine (not just specialized disciplines like Endocrinology or Pediatrics), and be able to play concert level violin by the age of eighteen.

Yes, I am talking about a world where Man and Machine fuse to create Superman out of every individual.

That, I think, is where we are headed.

In the meantime, let’s build Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Startups.

The field is both wide open and extremely crowded. Meaning, you’d need to do intense competitive analysis to understand where there is a gap in the market.

Also, domain knowledge is heavily prized in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Startups.

You could be a technical founder with deep algorithmic knowledge, or you could be a non-technical founder with a deep understanding of the workflow of international container shipping.

Both are valuable.

Let’s get started!