What are loss functions?

A loss function is like a scoreboard that tells us how well someone is doing at a game, the closer to zero, the better they're playing.

Imagine you and your friend are playing a guessing game where you try to guess how many jellybeans are in a jar. Every time you make a guess, your friend tells you how far off you were. That difference, how wrong or right you were, is like the loss.

If you're trying to be really smart and figure out exactly how many jellybeans are in the jar, you might try different guesses each time. The loss function helps you know which guess was better, it gives you a number that gets smaller as your guess gets closer to the real answer.

Now imagine you're teaching your little brother how to guess jellybeans too. Every time he makes a guess, you use the loss function to show him how close or far he was from the correct number. That way, he learns faster and gets better at guessing, just like you!

So whether you’re playing games or learning new things, a loss function is just a helpful tool that keeps track of how good your guesses are getting.