In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.<p>&quot;What are you doing?&quot;, asked Minsky.<p>&quot;I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe&quot;, Sussman replied.<p>&quot;Why is the net wired randomly?&quot;, asked Minsky.<p>&quot;I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play&quot;, Sussman said.<p>Minsky then shut his eyes.<p>&quot;Why do you close your eyes?&quot; Sussman asked his teacher.<p>&quot;So that the room will be empty.&quot;<p>At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.<p>RIP.