diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ef4e0db8cb..f7a5f0db74 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,11 +42,12 @@ print(y.grad)  # dz/dy
 ```python
 from tinygrad.tensor import Tensor
 import tinygrad.optim as optim
+from tinygrad.utils import layer_init_uniform
 
 class TinyBobNet:
   def __init__(self):
-    self.l1 = Tensor(layer_init(784, 128))
-    self.l2 = Tensor(layer_init(128, 10))
+    self.l1 = Tensor(layer_init_uniform(784, 128))
+    self.l2 = Tensor(layer_init_uniform(128, 10))
 
   def forward(self, x):
     return x.dot(self.l1).relu().dot(self.l2).logsoftmax()
diff --git a/test/mnist.py b/test/mnist.py
index 3475f42c3d..a7e24842f6 100644
--- a/test/mnist.py
+++ b/test/mnist.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 import numpy as np
 from tinygrad.tensor import Tensor
-from tinygrad.utils import fetch_mnist
+from tinygrad.utils import layer_init_uniform, fetch_mnist
 import tinygrad.optim as optim
 
 from tqdm import trange
@@ -13,14 +13,11 @@ X_train, Y_train, X_test, Y_test = fetch_mnist()
 # train a model
 
 np.random.seed(1337)
-def layer_init(m, h):
-  ret = np.random.uniform(-1., 1., size=(m,h))/np.sqrt(m*h)
-  return ret.astype(np.float32)
 
 class TinyBobNet:
   def __init__(self):
-    self.l1 = Tensor(layer_init(784, 128))
-    self.l2 = Tensor(layer_init(128, 10))
+    self.l1 = Tensor(layer_init_uniform(784, 128))
+    self.l2 = Tensor(layer_init_uniform(128, 10))
 
   def forward(self, x):
     return x.dot(self.l1).relu().dot(self.l2).logsoftmax()
diff --git a/tinygrad/utils.py b/tinygrad/utils.py
index 61f57224ea..31791b90eb 100644
--- a/tinygrad/utils.py
+++ b/tinygrad/utils.py
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+import numpy as np
+
+def layer_init_uniform(m, h):
+  ret = np.random.uniform(-1., 1., size=(m,h))/np.sqrt(m*h)
+  return ret.astype(np.float32)
+
 def fetch_mnist():
   def fetch(url):
     import requests, gzip, os, hashlib, numpy