PicoBlog

In 2019, AI researcher Richard Sutton, one of the godfathers of reinforcement learning, penned a fantastic and striking essay called "The Bitter Lesson."  Its first line delivers its killer insight: "The biggest lesson that can be read from 70 years of AI research is that general methods that leverage computation are ultimately the most effective, and by a large margin." It's a lesson you'd think people would embrace with open arms.

Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka is often overshadowed by teammate Marvin Harrison Jr., but Egbuka is a first round-caliber wide receiver in the 2024 NFL Draft class. Egbuka is one of four wide receivers I have given first round evaluations. Visit my Twitter account @Sam_Teets33 for more opinions on prospects, clips, and the latest football content. Classification: Junior slot receiver from Steilacoom, Wash. Background: Egbuka was a five-star recruit from Steilacoom High School in Steilacoom, Wash.

Emilia PetrarcaEmilia Petrarca is a native New Yorker covering fashion and culture. Before going freelance, she held the role of Senior Fashion Writer at NYMag's the Cut, where she worked for 5 years. Her writing can now also be found in the NYTimes, WSJ, and more. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbS0zqmpmqw%3D

Notes on real life, motherhood, creative business, and more by Emily Ley: bestselling author / founder of Simplified®. Paid subscribers receive weekly posts, Group Text threads, and Sunday Scrolls + access to the archive. Glad you're here! Over 20,000 subscribers No thanks“I've always admired Emily Ley as an entrepreneur, creative, mom, and writer. She shares a nice mix of all of the above and more in her newsletter -- there's something for everyone.

Emily Ratajkowski’s new book is a searing indictment of a number of lecherous men, but also the people too often responsible for orchestrating her interactions with them: modeling agents. Her stories repeatedly highlight agents’ failure to protect the young women for whom they work. Reviews of this personal essay collection, My Body, ask if we’re supposed to feel sorry for Ratajkowski. “It would be dishonest to claim that there isn’t something a little galling about a beautiful woman—a beautiful, thin, straight white woman—complaining about how difficult it is to be perfect-looking,” Carrie Battan wrote in the New Yorker.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a Teen Vogue essay floating around social media about the all-white casting of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. The author argued that Gerwig’s new film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel missed an opportunity for positive racebending, suggesting the role of Laurie (played by Timothée Chalamet) could have been given to an actor of color. I found the author’s case a little weak—which isn’t to say there’s not an argument to be made for diversifying period pieces on screen, just that this writer didn’t make it very well.

There is a common misconception, found even in some authoritative biblical commentaries, that “to break bread” simply means to share a meal. Or rather, there is a common misconception about why it means that. In fact there is no evidence that in classical Greek “breaking bread” means this at all, nor was it a Hebrew idiom. Not that it is hard to work out what it means; since bread was central to any ancient Mediterranean meal, “to break the bread,” as the Emmaus story puts it, was readily comprehensible as a metonym for a meal.

Compassion is one of the qualities that draws people to Buddhism. The wish to free others from suffering, is how the texts define it. Compassion is a heartfelt outflowing of loving kindness, a phrase constantly used by the Dalai Lama to describe the essence of Buddhist teachings. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Tibetan Buddhist group I belong to here in Perth, Australia, as well as those I know in other parts of the world, attract many people from the caring professions.

Dear Classical Wisdom Reader, Plato wrote about philosopher kings. But what about philosopher gods? They say that the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles died by jumping into the volcanic Mount Etna. Legend has it, he believed he was a god, and was attempting to prove his immortality. Or, rather, that by jumping into the volcano, he would become a god. It all makes me think of the line from Fight Club: “The first step to eternal life is you have to die.