I don't know if my reading is the intended one, but the way I've always interpreted this is not that random initialization is bad. Rather, the error Sussman mak

I don't know if my reading is the intended one, but the way I've always interpreted this is not that random initialization is bad. Rather, the error Sussman makes is saying that a randomly initialized network has no preconceptions of how to play. It does - it's just that the preconceptions are randomized and so you don't know what they are. Similarly, closing your eyes does not make the room empty, it just means you don't know what's in it. That said, I don't think my interpretation really matches the intent of the poster above.