[solipsism]

This is backward thinking. It borders on elitist, although I know it's not meant that way.

Developers everywhere use Paxos without even knowing it, much less having read Lamport's papers, because they're building on top of solid tools that use Paxos (or Raft or what have you). This is more true at Google and Facebook than anywhere.

Same goes for ML. You can study the theory, and you can learn to apply it. In the field's nascency you basically need to understand the theory in order to apply anything, but eventually robust tools are built upon which developers can build systems without having "studied these things for years (by PhD)".

[webmaven]

> eventually robust tools are built upon which developers can build systems without having "studied these things for years (by PhD)".

For ML, I don't think we are at the eventually point just yet.

[solipsism]

Let's put it this way. A startup that insists every one of its developers touching ML has a sound basis in fundamental theory is going to get left in the dust.

Anyone who wants to be the guy/gal who understands the fundamentals will be valuable. But we don't need everyone trying to be that person. And most wouldn't be successful, though they'd be successful as the guy/gal who does other stuff.

[webmaven]

Well, sure. But that isn't "eventually".