12 MAR 2026

Day 71

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.

Edsger W. Dijkstra · How do we tell truths that might hurt?

A rectangular panel of woven raffia palm fibre, densely embroidered with geometric patterns in contrasting thread, some areas cut into a short pile that creates texture and shifts the way light falls across the surface.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Kuba Raffia Cloth

Kuba · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Raffia palm fibre

Kuba weavers built geometric patterns that establish a rule, then violate it. Mathematicians see group theory; the makers were doing something else entirely.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Pruning

Reasoning and architecture · Weight removal after training · 50–90% of parameters

A large language model can lose half its weights and retain most of its performance. The catch is that the resulting sparse network may run no faster than the original.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

Life-size figures painted on deep red walls in a continuous frieze. Women in draped garments, a reclining male figure, a winged figure with a raised whip, a kneeling woman, and a dancing figure in swirling drapery.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries

Ancient Rome · Pompeii · 1st century BC

Life-size figures move across saturated red walls in a sequence that includes a flogging, an unveiling, and gestures whose meaning died with the initiates who knew them.

Enter lesson 7 MIN