Essay · ~5 min read

The Bitter Lesson

Richard Sutton · incompleteideas.net (Richard Sutton) Free Advanced

A one page essay arguing that in AI the methods that ride falling compute costs keep beating clever handcrafted ones, because compute keeps getting exponentially cheaper. It is a sharp, real example of a cost curve as the durable fuel behind a trend. Even outside AI, it teaches you to ask what is quietly compounding underneath.

  • General methods that ride cheap compute beat clever handcrafted ones over time.
  • The durable force is the exponentially falling cost of computation.
  • Bet on what compounds, not on this year's clever trick.
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The question it answers

  1. How do I tell the difference between a real trend and a passing fad?

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