Wish I would finally follow my own advice, but I think it would be best to pick a problem and start hacking. There are lots of data sets available on the net, and competitions like the Netflix prize, too.
A while ago there was a story on HN about somebody who built a recommender system for boardgamegeek.com, for example. I thought that was inspiring.
I believe this to be sound advice, so what I'm actually thinking of right now is to go and pace slowly on the math/theory, while starting a super beginner project to get my feet wet.
A while ago there was a story on HN about somebody who built a recommender system for boardgamegeek.com, for example. I thought that was inspiring.