The First Rule of Machine Learning: Start without Machine Learning
eugeneyan.com/writing/first-rule-of-ml
What Jamie wrote
I hope at this point most people understand that machine learning isn't an exotic spice you can add to any problem to make it better. This article does a good job of highlighting other ways to solve similar problems, that are often easier and cheaper. And I like the key qualifier for deciding when the problem you are working on is ready for machine learning techniques.
Having robust data pipelines and high-quality data labels also suggests you’re ready for machine learning.
If you are building a solution that you know will be at a scale that will require machine learning, getting those data pipelines right early on is very important.