Nothing is unlearnable - it's never question of "if it can be done" but question of "how much effort is needed". Read few blogs, books and take Coursera classes etc are all good but the real thing is working on multiple real and new problems. Anyone who has read books/blogs etc, give them a new problem, for example, predicting pedestrian intent for crossing a road from set of video frames. See how far they get.
So are you saying there are no best practices or patterns that are discovered over time that allows newcomers to progress in the field faster than the early pioneers?
Sorry to be that guy but this kind of "elitism" seriously bothers me. I've seen this thing in almost all of the fields related to CS like "you have to spend 16 hours a day for 10 years to understand assembly" when I know a guy who became a malware expert in 4 years ( winning world class tournaments with his team ).
This thing is very discouraging, and it is false. You stated a problem which is hard to solve, but 99% of problems are not like this. Like:
- tell what kind of mineral deficiency a plant has?
- what kind of bug do you see?
- what kind of plant do you see?
- is this thing broken ( MRI or X ray )?
- what kind of musical notes are in a waveform?
See how far they get. A talented guy can solve these within one year.
