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The Neural Network Lexicon: Understand Neural Networks Without the Black Box

Neural networks power modern AI — but for many developers, they still feel like magic.

Not because the math is impossible, but because most explanations are either:

too theoretical, or

hidden behind high-level libraries.

I built the Neural Network Lexicon to fix that.

What Is the Neural Network Lexicon?

It’s a concept-by-concept reference for neural networks, explained from first principles.

One concept per page.
Clear definitions.
No framework lock-in.

Each entry answers:

  • What is this concept?
  • Why does it matter?
  • How does it work conceptually?
  • What usually goes wrong?

And yes — every concept includes a minimal Python example to make the computation visible.

Why Python (and Why Minimal)?

The Python snippets are intentionally small.

Not to build full models — but to show that:

neural networks are just computations.

Seeing a neuron as a weighted sum or a loss function as a number you can print changes how you think about ML.

Runnable Examples on GitHub

To keep the lexicon readable, full runnable examples live in GitHub:

  • One idea per file
  • No frameworks
  • Edit → run → observe

Read the concept, run the code, tweak a value, and learn faster.

  • What Does It Cover?

The lexicon is complete, not just introductory:

  • Core foundations (neurons, activations, loss)
  • Training & optimization
  • CNNs, RNNs, Transformers
  • Generalization & robustness
  • Explainability, uncertainty, fairness
  • Deployment & model lifecycle

In total: 100 structured entries.

Who Is This For?

  • Developers using ML libraries who want real understanding
  • Students overwhelmed by fragmented explanations
  • Engineers who want to debug models, not just train them

If you believe understanding comes before optimization, this is for you.

📘 Neural Network Lexicon (GitHub Wiki)
Built as part of SolveWithPython — learning by understanding, not memorizing.

Neural networks aren’t magic.
Once you understand what they compute, everything else follows.

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