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What should we do with "how to learn statistics/machine learning" questions?

For instance:

What should we do with such questions? Close as off-topic? Add the "references" tag? Would the "self-study" tag be appropriate (I wouldn't think so)?

Just for reference: Suggestions or recommendations for a university, journal, or research topic (a "shopping question") are explicitly off-topic at Academia.SE. Which I originally noted in “Where to publish” questions: on-topic?, which appears to be somewhat related and where the consensus is that "where to publish" questions are off-topic. Does that mean that "what to learn" is off-topic as well?

I'll link here from What is on topic on Cross Validated?

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    $\begingroup$ I think the new question is poor (so it's not surprising that it was downvoted; my first impulse would also be to downvote), but arguably on topic. However, it's unclear (what on Earth is "something concrete"?), so I voted to close as such. If it gets clarified & if edited for readability and clarity and a more focused title, then perhaps it could be an okay on topic question. Yes, I would put [references] tag. No, I would certainly not put [self-study] (which IMHO should be renamed into [exercises] or something). Also, tt might make sense to flag it for the mods to convert to Community Wiki. $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Nov 22, 2017 at 12:05
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    $\begingroup$ @amoeba Agreed, except I feel conflicted about applying CW when the problem really is that the question is completely off topic and badly formulated. It seems like that wouldn't do any harm, but it could have the unintended consequence of confusing people about what CW really is for. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Nov 22, 2017 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ I closed this thread as too broad instead of making it CW. I'm very sympathetic to questions near the borderline that may have real value despite being outside our scope. I think that's a good description of the Mathematician wants... thread, but not of this one. If it were edited to be such, I would be OK with reopening it & making it CW. $\endgroup$
    – gung - Reinstate Monica
    Nov 22, 2017 at 16:03
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    $\begingroup$ side comment: the first Q could also be tagged careers. Maybe it is a dupe to some of these. $\endgroup$
    – Andre Silva
    Nov 22, 2017 at 21:23

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