Generative AI in 20 Minutes: (Coffee Break Series)

Good value. Not perfect, but I would buy another book from this author.

This is the third book I have read on ai & machine learning this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Some sections were excellent and others felt like filler.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.