To many people, machine learning is a black box of awesomeness that magically solves all of your problems. When you combine this with how much it is talked about in the news it can be very hard to understand what it truly is, what kind of problems it can solve, and where it fits in your developer tool belt. Starting with the basics and debunking the misconceptions we will more objectively be able analyze when and where using machine learning will fit within our projects.