[bstar77]

I've been thinking about this a bit lately and I think it's actually less about fundamentals and more of an issue with process. I'm not saying that fundamentals are not essential, but we often don't have the time to learn all aspects of a complex system.

There is definitely a lot of overlap here, but I have a finite amount of time that I can put towards solving problems. I've been thrown into AI over the past 6 months and know none of the fundamentals of this space, but I can still be very productive.

My process now is to know how to pull up docs quickly (in my editor), take advantage of the LSP, use my debugger and learn the systems on the fly. I'm probably not going to take courses in AI, Data Science and other aspects of this discipline as it will only have a marginal affect on my daily activities.

My job is to understand the flow of data, so I need to focus on that and make sure my process, tooling and access to documentation are the best possible to accomplish that.