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The Daily Triptych055 / 365

24 FEB 2026

Day 55

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space.

Walter Benjamin · The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
A pale blue-green glazed stoneware vessel with incised decoration filled with contrasting slip, visible beneath a translucent glaze.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Korean Goryeo Celadon

Goryeo Korea · Medieval · Glazed stoneware

A blue-green glaze over white and black clay pressed into the surface — a technique invented in Korea that Chinese connoisseurs praised, and that potters elsewhere could not replicate.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Chinchilla and Compute-Optimal Training

Training and alignment · Hoffmann et al., 2022 · Optimal ratio roughly 20 tokens per parameter

Most large models were undertrained, using far too few tokens for their size. A 2022 paper showed that doubling data mattered more than doubling parameters, and the field's roadmap changed overnight.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

Written before source checking was enforced · facts in this lesson are unverified

A rehearsal room with pale floorboards occupying the foreground. Dancers in white tutus cluster at the edges and background, some sitting, some standing, none dancing. An older man in dark clothes leans on a stick at the right.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Degas's The Dance Class

Edgar Degas · 1871 · Oil on canvas

Degas filled the foreground with empty floorboards and pushed the dancers to the edges, where they scratch, fidget and stare at nothing while the master leans on his stick.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

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