# The Little Book of Deep Learning by François Fleuret

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Little Book of Deep Learning by François Fleuret and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a free high-level introduction to deep learning concepts, a useful start for software developers. Main caveat: it stays high-level and somewhat handwavy.

## Why people recommend it

- Good start for software developers (1 comments): "it was a nice start for me (software dev) into the field" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47733393))
- Introduces core deep learning concepts (1 comments): "It's more of a high-level handwavy "these are the concepts involved"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969311))

## What people warn about

- High-level, handwavy treatment (1 comments): "It's more of a high-level handwavy "these are the concepts involved"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46969311))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) by Sebastian Raschka](https://hackerapproved.com/p/build-a-large-language-model.md): 16 recommend
- [Build an LLM from Scratch by Sebastian Raschka](https://hackerapproved.com/p/build-an-llm-from-scratch.md): 8 recommend
- [Python Data Science Handbook by Jake VanderPlas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python-data-science-handbook.md): 8 recommend
- [The Little Learner by Daniel P. Friedman and Anurag Mendhekar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/little-learner.md): 6 recommend
- [Probabilistic Machine Learning by Kevin Murphy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/probabilistic-machine-learning.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Little+Book+of+Deep+Learning+by+Fran%C3%A7ois+Fleuret&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Little Book of Deep Learning by François Fleuret", https://hackerapproved.com/p/little-book-of-deep-learning/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).