I built a simple CNN in cpp , should I keep improving it or move on?
I'm a first-year Computer Engineering student, and I've been learning about machine learning and CNNs recently.
As a learning exercise, I built a small sketch classifier from scratch in C++17, without using PyTorch/TensorFlow. It implements the CNN, backpropagation, gradient checking, SGD, etc., and currently gets around 94% validation accuracy.
GitHub: https://github.com/rituuu001/Doodle-guesser
Now I'm stuck on what I should do next.
I could keep improving this project — better training, data augmentation, a deeper CNN, more classes, etc. But I'm wondering if that's actually the best use of my time, or if I should consider this project "done" and start something completely different.
For people who have more experience with ML:
How do you decide when a project has taught you enough and it's time to move on?
Would you recommend:
- continuing to improve this project until I've explored it more deeply, or
- moving on to a new ML project where I can learn something different?
I'm mainly trying to avoid spending months endlessly polishing the same beginner project, but I also don't want to move on too quickly without getting enough out of it.
Would really appreciate some honest advice.