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The Daily Triptych124 / 365

4 MAY 2026

Day 124

Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.

Confucius · The Analects
A cylindrical clay object with intricate cuneiform writing covering its surface. The text is arranged in neat rows that wrap around the cylinder from top to bottom.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Cylinder of Nabonidus

British Museum · clay

This cylindrical inscription from Mesopotamia has endured a thousand years of ruin and still speaks to us today, offering insights into ancient civilizations.

Enter lesson 8 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Self-Play with Population-Based Training

Reinforcement learning · Population methods · arXiv 1712.06567 · 1907.04543

A single learner need not stand alone. A population of candidate networks can compete, vary and replace one another — and on some tasks that process rivals gradient descent.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
A crowded open-air gathering under trees: figures seated in the foreground, dancers and talkers beyond, sunlight falling in broken patches across faces, hats and dresses.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Bal du moulin de la Galette

Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1876 · Oil on canvas

Renoir’s large 1876 canvas fills a Sunday crowd under trees with light that never settles, and a brush that keeps every figure slightly unfinished.

Enter lesson 6 MIN