The Little Book of Deep Learning
The Little Book of Deep Learning by François Fleuretby François Fleuret
Shares rank 7 of 10 machine learning books by recommenders
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.
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.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good start for software developers
“it was a nice start for me (software dev) into the field”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “The Little Book of Deep Learning” Introduces core deep learning concepts
“It's more of a high-level handwavy "these are the concepts involved"”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
High-level, handwavy treatment
“It's more of a high-level handwavy "these are the concepts involved"”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “The Little Learner: A Straight Line to Deep Learning”
Other machine learning books people recommend
The four most recommended other machine learning books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch)by Sebastian Raschka | 16 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Build an LLM from Scratchby Sebastian Raschka | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Python Data Science Handbookby Jake VanderPlas | 8 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| The Little Learnerby Daniel P. Friedman and Anurag Mendhekar | 6 | 2 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| The Little Book of Deep Learningby François FleuretThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
2 of the 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it was a nice start for me (software dev) into the field”
“It's more of a high-level handwavy "these are the concepts involved"”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.