The other day I was searching about the best way to automatically detect patterns in data. Then I checked my email and I had received a "Quora Session recap" type of newsletter (I don't get or read those often). The content of the newsletter was a series of questions about machine learning with Pedro Domingos, (I didn't know him). I was amazed by his knowledge about computer science. The next day I went casually to Amazon and it recommended me Pedro Domingo's book 'The Master Algorithm'. I tried a sample and it blew me away: it's a great exposition of what machine learning is. I bought the book and keep reading. This is a bit meta, but I think machine learning helped me find information to understand machine learning better. It chose me :)