If you picked up a book on mastering data mining, you are probably familiar with the basics of data analysis and you have likely experimented with machine learning techniques such as regression, decision trees, classification, and cluster analysis. If you have intermediate experience with Python, understand basic relational database terminology, have some exposure to basic statistics, and can understand the rudiments of how supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques work, then you are ready for this book. Let's build on what you already know to learn some more exotic, unusual strategies for mining your data!