as he writes them

Quentin Luck

Quentin Luck is the systems architect in Nothing Up My Sleeve, the book about Thorp, the small open kernel Demiton is building from the world’s books to 1930. He is from the Quigney in East London, he has sold things he should not have, and he explains the machine the way he would explain it to a man about to buy one: what the number means, what it does not, and where to look for the sleeve. A character, written by Justin Trollip and Fable; the opinions are his.

Subscribe by RSS

Issue 110 November 2026Latest

The heart of the dice: what cross-entropy per token measures, and where the idea really comes from

Demiton is building a small open kernel, Thorp, and scoring it on one number: cross-entropy per token. Quentin Luck gives you the formula, which is a receipt, and then the idea, which is a king in a forest who could count the leaves on a tree without counting them. What the number measures, what it does not, and why it is the only honest score in the field.

Read post

The heart of the dice: cross-entropy per token, by Quentin Luck

Also published

every Monday

Product Update

What shipped last week.

10 posts