The Permanent Upper Crow
104 points
4 hours ago
| 16 comments
| permanent-upper-crow.jasonwu.ink
| HN
thegrim33
2 hours ago
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What's interesting is the creator of the site has listed on their linkedin that they're ... wait for it ... a co-founder at some generic AI startup with the goal of using AI agents to automate away manual jobs.
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pocksuppet
2 hours ago
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So he's obviously on the winning side of this transaction. Hopefully the losing side is someone who isn't you. Maybe it's a VC fund.
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root-parent
1 hour ago
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I grok that as the author having a sick sense of humor. I like it....
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whiteblossom
2 hours ago
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are we not all slaves to the top hat?
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kubb
1 hour ago
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Understandig how the hammer falls tells you where to stand to avoid it.
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forgetfreeman
1 hour ago
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When did peddling dietary supplements and crypto go out of fashion?
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keybored
2 hours ago
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Are we the Baddies? Yes, and how interesting. I could vibe a game about that.
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soupspaces
1 minute ago
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Beautiful
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arjie
3 hours ago
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Fascinating. I was able to escape the suffering by simply not purchasing a top hat. An interesting lesson that the pursuit of conspicuous consumption is the root of one’s own suffering.

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

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xattt
3 hours ago
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Once I realized I couldn’t decline, I left the website and left the top hat on the table.
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ricardobayes
3 hours ago
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That's easier to do in a video game, but I guess the real life analogy would be to sell it all and move off-grid to Alaska?
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tjohns
19 minutes ago
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I'd argue it's not about selling everything. Instead, avoid buying things by default and trying to keep up with the Joneses. You don't need to move to the wilderness, you just need to choose to escape consumerism.

For example:

- Do you really need a new car, when a lightly used one will do just fine and will be more economical?

- Do you really need to upgrade to a new phone every year when your current one is still working fine?

- Do you really need to buy premium clothes from the mall when the ones from Target are much cheaper?

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bix6
46 minutes ago
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Sell what all? Isn’t everything just for rent now?
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the_af
3 hours ago
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Your reply reminded me of the free game Oiligarchy by Molleindustria (which made quite a few indie hits in my opinion).

In that game, if you played "well" you ended up destroying the world. The only winning move was, indeed, not to play.

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shaftway
2 hours ago
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I think OP is referring to the 80's movie WarGames - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

At the end a strategic defense computer is asked to play Tic Tac Toe against itself and suddenly "learns" about no-win scenarios. Then it does the same with nuclear launch scenarios, and finds that they're all no-win. It decides that nuclear war "is a strange game", and "the only winning move is not to play".

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the_af
1 hour ago
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Thanks, I caught the WarGames reference. Is there anyone not familiar with it? It's one of those pieces of widespread internet lore (though, of course, I actually watched the movie too, back in my youth).

I very intentionally meant that it also applies to Oiligarchy [1], an actual game (not a movie) where the winning move was not to play :)

---

[1] https://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy/

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Tossrock
1 hour ago
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In case you're wondering, there are 106 CEOs / companies, and at 107 it just loops around.
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whiteblossom
1 hour ago
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PRs to add web-llm welcome ;)

though I would argue the current state is more reflective of reality...

cheers

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jc4883
3 hours ago
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How does it come up with the CEO and business' name? I assume there's gotta be finite number and the game has to end (?) Anyways, sick game.
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Tossrock
1 hour ago
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There's a pre-generated list with 106 entries, and when it reaches the end of that list, it loops around.
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kbutler
56 minutes ago
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The real message is that, even if you don't get rich and can't buy that clothing item that is 10x your nest worth, your work can provide for your needs and your family - rent, groceries, helping extended family...

(Worked at a couple of startups, didn't get rich, but had good experiences, paid for family needs, and put aside investments for the future.)

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imnotyy
1 hour ago
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Reminded me of a book called Finite and Infinite Games
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proton_9
11 minutes ago
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The one by Simon Sinek? I've just picked it for reading this week
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nprbst
3 hours ago
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CAWn't believe how hard this hits
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juancn
2 hours ago
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So that's how you become a galactic civilization!
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saaaaaam
3 hours ago
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Well done! Fun and satirical
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RAZKOM
2 hours ago
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I honestly love the look of the website. It makes me want to play/make a 2d scroller.
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whiteblossom
1 hour ago
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thank you! and noted ;)
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calvisitor
1 hour ago
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hey when does this game end?
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whiteblossom
57 minutes ago
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never stop grinding
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Yumat
3 hours ago
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It never ends…

Super cool concept

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aselimov3
3 hours ago
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This is quality
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ricardobayes
3 hours ago
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Brilliant
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dheera
3 hours ago
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Yep, this is basically the world today. The only difference in the real world:

"What if I told you you can buy that $10 hat today using borrowed money that you don't have, pay $1/year interest for the rest of your life until you pay it back, but you have to earn $2/year more in order to have $1/year more to pay, but to earn $2/year more, your company has to earn $3/year more"

"Oh and you also need to buy insurance for that $10 hat because it's not yours, and you have to pay us for the insurance we're going to buy in addition to the insurance you're going to buy to insure us from you, so that'll be another $1, or you have to make $2 more to have $1, or your company needs to make $3 more, so now your company needs to make $6/year more"

"Oh and we're also going to devalue the $ so you actually need to make $10/year more because a $ won't be worth that much in a couple years"

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