The Permanent Upper Crow (permanent-upper-crow.jasonwu.ink)
108 points by whiteblossom 5 hours ago
thegrim33 3 hours ago
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.
pocksuppet 3 hours ago
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.
root-parent 2 hours ago
I grok that as the author having a sick sense of humor. I like it....
forgetfreeman an hour ago
When did peddling dietary supplements and crypto go out of fashion?
whiteblossom 3 hours ago
are we not all slaves to the top hat?
kubb 2 hours ago
Understandig how the hammer falls tells you where to stand to avoid it.
keybored 2 hours ago
Are we the Baddies? Yes, and how interesting. I could vibe a game about that.
arjie 4 hours ago
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.
xattt 4 hours ago
Once I realized I couldn’t decline, I left the website and left the top hat on the table.
ricardobayes 3 hours ago
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?
tjohns 31 minutes ago
bix6 an hour ago
the_af 4 hours ago
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.
shaftway 2 hours ago
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".
the_af an hour ago
Tossrock 2 hours ago
In case you're wondering, there are 106 CEOs / companies, and at 107 it just loops around.
whiteblossom 2 hours ago
PRs to add web-llm welcome ;)
though I would argue the current state is more reflective of reality...
cheers
soupspaces 14 minutes ago
Beautiful
jc4883 4 hours ago
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.
Tossrock 2 hours ago
There's a pre-generated list with 106 entries, and when it reaches the end of that list, it loops around.
kbutler an hour ago
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.)
imnotyy 2 hours ago
Reminded me of a book called Finite and Infinite Games
proton_9 23 minutes ago
The one by Simon Sinek? I've just picked it for reading this week
nprbst 4 hours ago
CAWn't believe how hard this hits
juancn 3 hours ago
So that's how you become a galactic civilization!
Yumat 4 hours ago
It never ends…
Super cool concept
saaaaaam 4 hours ago
Well done! Fun and satirical
RAZKOM 3 hours ago
I honestly love the look of the website. It makes me want to play/make a 2d scroller.
whiteblossom an hour ago
thank you! and noted ;)
calvisitor 2 hours ago
hey when does this game end?
whiteblossom an hour ago
never stop grinding
aselimov3 4 hours ago
This is quality
ricardobayes 3 hours ago
Brilliant
dheera 4 hours ago
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"