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The Daily Triptych044 / 365

13 FEB 2026

Day 44

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all.

Herodotus · The Histories
A pair of curved gold clasps, each divided into geometric panels filled with dark red garnet and millefiori glass, bordered by interlaced animal designs in gold and garnet.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Sutton Hoo Shoulder-Clasps

Anglo-Saxon · Early 7th century · Gold, garnet, millefiori glass

Each clasp holds more than three thousand pieces of garnet, cut and fitted so precisely that the joins vanish at arm's length. The stone came from India or Sri Lanka.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Top-k, Top-p and Min-p

Inference · Top-k in 2018, nucleus (top-p) and min-p shortly after · Balancing diversity and coherence during text generation

Greedy decoding is deterministic but dull. Sampling from the full distribution adds variety but also gibberish. The solution is to throw away most of the distribution before you sample.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
Fragment of a Teotihuacan mural showing figures in profile procession against a red background, wearing elaborate feathered headdresses and ornaments, with stylised speech scrolls emerging from their mouths.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Murals of Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan civilization · c. 1–550 CE · Teotihuacán de Arista

A city of perhaps 100,000 people covered its walls with painted figures. Almost none of them are named. Almost none wear crowns. The absence is deliberate.

Enter lesson 7 MIN