The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 8 of 60 articles by recommenders
A short essay on AI that people recommend for framing current debates about scale, data and research direction, and for being widely misunderstood.
A short essay on AI that people recommend for framing current debates about scale, data and research direction, and for being widely misunderstood.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Relevant to current AI debates
“Their current rhetoric is a direct extension of that perspective.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Ilya Sutskever, Yann LeCun and the End of “Just Add GPUs”” “The mathematicians would be wise to re-read The Bitter Lesson”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “A misalignment of AI in mathematics” “I think "The Bitter Lesson" is relevant here”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Software Development Is Software Developers” - Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Ilya Sutskever, Yann LeCun and the End of “Just Add GPUs””
Often misunderstood, worth rereading
“I'm linking the actual text of the bitter lesson because I think it's misunderstood”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Nvidia Cosmos 3” “The mathematicians would be wise to re-read The Bitter Lesson”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “A misalignment of AI in mathematics” “They should read the bitter lesson again.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Ilya Sutskever, Yann LeCun and the End of “Just Add GPUs”” Interesting, quick read
“is significantly more interesting than watching researcher companies cosplay”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Dots: Always-on agents” “you may find “The Bitter Lesson” essay interesting to read”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Sharing AI progress in mathematics” “neat thing called "The Bitter Lesson"”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “LLMs reward expertise”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The Bitter Lesson by Rich SuttonThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“you may find “The Bitter Lesson” essay interesting to read”
“is significantly more interesting than watching researcher companies cosplay”
“data is probably far most interesting than architecture”
“The mathematicians would be wise to re-read The Bitter Lesson”
“neat thing called "The Bitter Lesson"”
“I'm linking the actual text of the bitter lesson because I think it's misunderstood”
“Don't make me tap the sign”
“I think "The Bitter Lesson" is relevant here”
“Their current rhetoric is a direct extension of that perspective.”
“They should read the bitter lesson again.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.