6 ms·
My Friend Aaron
- curuinor 2mo agoMurder is always systematically kind of a dramatic act. We are definitely going to get a prediction market murder in <5 years, I think.
- myhf 2mo agoEvery prediction market is an assassination market. They claim to trade on "information" but it's more like "influence", and easiest way to influence an event is usually by sabotage.
- stronglikedan 2mo agoa tale as old as time. e.g., fixing a fight or a game
- 1dom 2mo agoI learned about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market in the early 2010s. It wasn't phrased like a prediction market focusing on when a person would die, but more like a bounty. If the bounty/pot got big enough, eventually it would be worth it for someone to do it. Even thinking/writing about this now, it still makes obvious sense and I'm surprised it hasn't been seriously made yet with crypto: if there's a pot of billions, contributed to by millions, the incentive becomes not just about the money, but the adoration, protection and power that would come with doing so many people a favour.
- nemomarx 2mo agoI think all the big targets for this kind of thing have the legal or government muscle to get in your way? Millions of people usually don't agree on someone dying unless they're powerful.
- rad-b 1mo agoIt seems to me you underestimate the challenges of getting the money from such crypto scheme. A murderer would have to prove to the pot owner that they are, in fact, the real murderer and not someone pretending to be one to get the money. However, there’d be another actor trying to prove who the murderer is - the police. So, you’d practically have to dox yourself in order to get the money, or be able to have such a strong privacy system that a state actor cannot break it and identify you from your communications with the pot owner (lol). If you have such a strong cyber security system, you’re probably better off just selling it for $$$$$$ than muurdering randos. But these problems would likely be self-resolving in most cases as the crypto pot owner would simply rug-pull everyone.
- cindyllm 2mo ago[dead]
- ekianjo 2mo agothats already on a table when you place a prediction that is related to an Individual doing something. you dont even need to spell it out. not sure how we are going to regulate those
- stephenlf 2mo agoSpooky and riveting!
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you very much.
- moralestapia 2mo agoMan this piece should win an Emmy or something, it's so original and well written. I also couldn't spot much AI in there. Props to the author. >rhythmically ejected spurts of bright red blood Yeah man, like in music, synesthesia, I get you. Unsurprisingly the author also makes music: https://rorz.io/music https://rorz.io/music One of his songs is called "Do androids dream of real sheep?" What a fresh take on that classic quote! Made me spurt my kombucha, lol. How can someone be SO talented. Thanks for sharing.
- sarreph 2mo agoSuch kind words…! I’m so honoured and humbled. Thank you. P.S. - I didn’t use LLMs to write it, no! :)
- alun 2mo agoVery fun read. Thanks for posting it!
- sarreph 2mo agoAppreciate the comment :)
- greenfish6 2mo agoPowerful. And written so well, I thought it was real at first, I even forgot about the "this is a short story at the top" and googled Aaron's different betting websites
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you, very kind of you to say!
- corndoge 2mo agoI like it because each individual piece can happen and we probably all know people by now that have some aspect of Aaron - massive AI use, or into prediction markets, or live streaming, or just a friend who we have learned over time lacks scruples, or have watched them fade in response to life's challenges. The combination of all of these is then easy to imagine and that idea makes a good story.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you for reading it!
- strathmeyer 2mo ago[dead]
- 23david 2mo agoGreat short story!!
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you!
- andai 2mo ago> I thought Aaron’s credits would run out and that would be the end of it: he would finally get a job. Upon reading these words I experienced psychic damage from the blast of concentrated ambitionlessness.
- JohnMakin 2mo agoI think this short story resonates because probably most people know an Aaron - the type that is incessantly looking for some kind of scheme, some kind of get rich quick thing, and will spend exponentially far more effort and misery suffered avoiding real employment than it would take actually just sucking it up and working, and often (usually) with much, much worse results. Yet they persist. A few of them become successful founders, probably, depending on their background. But most don't.
- JohnMakin 2mo agoWhen I was around that age, my Aaron was this kid who matched a similar description, very bright but utterly averse to any kind of work whatsoever, never finished his education, did okay in school but underperformed a lot. I remember a few of his dumbest schemes - one, he would get gift visa cards, run the balance down to pennies, then as a restaurant server for some crappy chain, would charge a customer with a big tip, put it on the drained card, and due to some weird quirk with the way they processed tips back then, the money would hit his paycheck before the decline would happen. I pointed out it was stupid easy to get caught by the bank and his restaurant but he insisted it was genius and foolproof. Got caught in a month or two, fired, nearly got in a lot of legal trouble but somehow got out of it. His all time dumbest 'scheme' was when a major automaker was going into bankruptcy at some point during the financial crisis, the stock was pennies. So he invested all his savings, some thousands of dollars, into buying the stocks. Even being so young and barely financially literate at that point I was aghast, tried to explain that when the bankruptcy finishes, his stock will be worth nothing. No, no, he assured me - imagine - this stock was $20 before, when it's $20 again I'll be a gazillionaire. I tried very very hard to convince him that was not correct and of course he lost everything. Shortly after he got into dealing marijuana but by that point I had determined he wasn't worth hanging out with anymore. No idea what happened to him.
- tyre 2mo agoWhat’s funny is that there was a bankrupt auto company that was memed back into existence. Hertz, by all logic, was absolutely doomed. Retail traders brought it back from near-certain liquidation and could have made a ton of money. Not sure how many actually sold.
- htx619 2mo ago[dead]
- shimman 2mo agoReminds me of the Black Mirror episode "Shut up and Dance." Great story and creating the character Aaron. You did an excellent job in making a very believable person that I think most of us have run into in tech adjacent spaces.
- sarreph 2mo agoI appreciate you referencing Charlie Brooker as he is undoubtedly a subconscious influence on my writing! Thanks for your comment.
- whiteblossom 2mo agoThank you for this piece! I'll be thinking about Aaron during lunch today.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you for your kind words.
- unglaublich 2mo agoHey you don't have to reply to each comment with a generic reply. It's a fine piece sure but let's not inflate this thread x2 with just "thank you for your words".
- dang 1mo agoI appreciate your watching out for the quality of Hacker News! but on this point we go by what pg said way back in 2009: Empty comments can be ok if they're positive. There's nothing wrong with submitting a comment saying just "Thanks." What we especially discourage are comments that are empty and negative—comments that are mere name-calling. It's not that what you said was wrong, it's just that the global optimum is best served by letting good feelings be shared, even when there isn't much cognitive content. Basically, HN does fine when cortex and heart are in approximately equal balance. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20newswelcome%20empty&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090206141746/http://www.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090206141746/http://www.ycombi...
- variant_length 2mo agoThis guy aaron doesnt sound very smart to me
- gpvos 2mo agoThere's a difference between intelligent and smart, the latter including being able to use your intelligence for a practical, real-life purpose, like improving your own life.
- cute_boi 2mo agoI think he is smart and intelligent but lacks wisdom.
- jerf 2mo agoINT 18 WIS 3 is no way to go through life, son. (Ref: https://www.quotes.net/mquote/3799 https://www.quotes.net/mquote/3799 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkoPq5AOCOA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkoPq5AOCOA )
- tyre 2mo agoFantastic writing, very well done. Every small, incremental decision is believable. You can see how the psychosis evolves. It made me think of Justin.tv, which was Justin Kan streaming himself. There weren’t betting markets, but today there would be. Twitch—what it ended up as–shows how much people crave community. Like other social media, there are many examples in chats of people with believed friendships and parasocial relationships with streamers. For smaller streams, sometimes these are real casual friendships. For larger ones, it’s the dark other side of Aaron. Anyway, I’m glad prediction markets didn’t exist in those days. I wish they didn’t now (we don’t need more outlets for gambling, in my opinion), but this was a great story nonetheless.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you for your kind words!
- john_strinlai 2mo agofrom your first post, a couple of days ago: >What I'm saying is: that the sum total of blog posts I have actually published (for myself, not for work) is zero. thanks for publishing this story. it kept me hooked throughout. i hope you continue to publish more.
- sarreph 2mo agoAh - thanks! I aim to keep it up!
- sarreph 2mo agoOP here - longtime HN user. I submitted this story to a writing contest a few months back, but didn’t hear anything from them. I posted it here on a punt and getting front page of HN is 10x the feeling any writing contest could give me! Thanks to all who read and commented, and glad to hear it resonates with some of you! [EDIT]: There've been a lot more comments since I wrote this one. I want you all to know that I've read every single comment and am ever so grateful for everyone who responded here / took the time to read the story!
- suriyaG 2mo agoThis is incredibly well written had me hooked till the end (probably because I thought it was a real life incident. :)
- madradavid 2mo agoMy god, for a minute there I thought this was real.. This resonates, I bet a number of us know or Are an “Aaron”. Thanks for this.
- xp84 2mo agoI'll admit, I was really hoping the end was going to be like, "And that's how Aaron Kalshi created a £XX billion company."
- raajg 2mo agoTHIS!
- archon810 2mo agoI thought it was going to be about Aaron Swartz.
- altilunium 2mo agoI immediately noticed something was wrong when the "daily tech message board" appeared. Before that point, I 100% believed that this was a real story.
- Mr_Eri_Atlov 2mo agoGreat story; it's amazing how many of us sympathize with or have had an Aaron in our lives.
- samizdis 2mo agoI clicked on the HN link and, when I saw "short story", almost closed the tab ... but I started to read anyway. I found it compelling and disturbing from start to finish. Much as my opinions about writing count for nothing, I truly hope that you poat any future works here. A great read.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you so much. I do indeed plan on posting more work here in future... HN has given me the impetus I needed for that (and more) now!
- photonios 2mo agoExceptionally well written! I was instantly hooked.
- whiteblossom 2mo agoFor all the Aarons out there, I think it would be very interesting to hear your POV.
- doright 2mo agoSome people have always had qualities like Aaron's, and giving them tools like AI causes them to reveal themselves by virtue of becoming that much louder. Those problems are often unfixable regardless, as they are at the level of personality. What is fixable in comparison (but likely not in practice) is not inventing new ways of allowing them to hang themselves and others. But we will invent them anyway, because a promising idea cannot be left alone for long, and consequences will be suffered as a result.
- jongjong 2mo agoAs I was reading, I thought to myself that if Aaron's last prediction market idea doesn't work out, he would probably go insane. This story paints a clear path of 'descent into madness' in a very realistic way. He succeeded, however, my take on the ending is that the whole world went crazy and that's why his idea ultimately proved successful.
- mchaver 2mo agoI initially missed the line saying it was a short story and read through most of it as personal experience until the last couple of paragraphs. That made it even more exciting, but it is still very good as a fictional story.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- arjie 2mo agoStrangely, doesn't load for me with some Vercel/NextJS error. Disabling Javascript displays the whole post, though.
- sarreph 2mo agoNotice another commenter saying similar, thanks for the data.
- Chu4eeno 2mo agoSomething seems to 404: GET https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js 404 Loading module from “https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js” was blocked because of a disallowed MIME type (“text/html”). TypeError: error loading dynamically imported module: https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js index-ConxhaY_.js:2:49967 The above error occurred in a React component: Lazy@unknown:0:0 div@unknown:0:0 div@unknown:0:0 div@unknown:0:0 body@unknown:0:0 html@unknown:0:0 Eo@https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/vinext-B9_QPQZC.js:32:16818 [...]
- burningChrome 2mo agoBest line in the story: I had spent my whole life dreaming of making my own overnight success on the internet, but had taught someone with no ethics how to do it instead. This is such a great line and one I know so many people related to as soon as they read it. You're a great writer, thank you for this today.
- DoctorOetker 2mo agoBut that is also basically what most intellectual jobs are, workers telling their boss what to do while pretending they are receiving and executing commands.
- sarreph 2mo agoAh, thank you!
- ceroxylon 2mo agoVery good from start to finish, it reminds me of a darker version of the real story told in the 2009 documentary We Live In Public about Josh Harris.
- StilesCrisis 2mo agoWhere did Aaron get the millions of dollars' worth of tokens from? The grannies?!?
- jborichevskiy 2mo agoGreat writing. Felt like it could be a Black Mirror episode
- nobodywillobsrv 2mo agoGood story and the classic problem with nearly all betting markets having viaticals embedded
- cynicalsecurity 2mo agoBefore you read and waste your time: == It's a fake story ==
- fooster 2mo agoOtherwise known as fiction.
- shadow28 2mo ago> waste your time Do you not read any fiction at all? Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
- mr-wendel 2mo agoAnd yet it reads better than quite a bit of non-fiction and invokes some interesting questions. Maybe its worth asking yourself what qualities in writing can make a “fake” story engage so many peoples interest? It’s also a bit odd to call it a fake when it’s never pitched as being true.
- mikhmha 2mo agoGreat story! Loved reading it. I also didn't see the notice it was a short story. So I was a bit puzzled when reading how Aaron built his own exchange as a novice programmer. To me building an exchange is high up on the scale of programming difficulty. Its one of those things you have to do extremely well or else no one will trust your platform.
- sarreph 2mo ago> I also didn't see the notice it was a short story. I'm starting to think perhaps I could have made the callout at the top a little clearer :) Thank you for your words above also.
- clort 2mo agomaybe add it at the end also :) I found that some of the timeline seemed out for my worldview. I'm not really sure how long the whole AI bubble has been out there, but it just seems so recent that I wasn't sure how they fitted all that in in the current timeline. Perhaps that will mature, in 5 years it won't all seem so new and perhaps more plausible. To address the GPs point though, I do think that with LLM-assistance even now you can certainly create such sites pretty quickly with a low skill level, and that will only become easier. The big problem with creating things (in that way, or manually) is that you are the architect and artistic director, and in truth many people just don't have the ability to manage the end-result in a way that will work. We see this in websites created by developers for their own software which get posted here. Too many times there are massive assumptions that the viewer knows all about the software, which means it is almost incomprehensible to the incomer who may be interested but leaves before engaging (that is: me). I don't suppose that was a problem for Aarons bot society, but it could have affected the launch.
- lucastamoios 2mo agoI use to read a lot, big novels and short stories, and I know when I see something that is good. Yours is. One thing that I give you as feedback, maybe for another version, or for future stories, would be to develop a bit more on why keep the friendship with Aaron. I know it was there some reasons, but for me it was a bit harder to follow. But even this is a small thing. Tell us if you have something else written to share.
- sarreph 2mo ago> develop a bit more on why keep the friendship with Aaron. Thanks for your feedback (I got similar feedback from my friend and my partner who both write). I agree that this felt like a bit of a hole in the story as I was writing it, that I never managed to satisfactorily patch up. > Tell us if you have something else written to share. This is my first piece of long-form fiction, have submitted a couple of new pieces to competitions since, and aim to post those and more soon!
- sailfast 2mo agoBlack Mirror adaptation when?
- hitekker 2mo agoReads a bit like an elevated resentment fantasy. A mostly ethical narrator narrating his friend’s morally deserved doom that keeps the narrator’s own hands mostly clean. And with the narrator holding a medal at the end. That’s cathartic for some. For me, the narrator rather resembles one of the local tech millionaires, envious of the billionaires. The story doesn’t seem to know the narrator’s dishonesty.
- rfool 2mo agoGood point! I also got that impression and that made this story feel shady and finally even boring, resulting in an empty aftershade, mentally. However, taste modulates wildly.
- wasmperson 2mo agoI think the narrator is the murderer and is lying about the man in the gray tracksuit. The repeated criticism of Aaron's moral character is a sort of rationalization for having killed him, with the underlying motive actually being a combination of greed and envy. Remember that the funds used to kick-start the trading platform came from a hackathon win that Aaron "stole".
- jamesforestwest 2mo agoWhat a great story. You have a very pleasant, flowing style. I didn't even notice it until I reached the end, it really captivated me
- sarreph 1mo agoI'm glad to hear it was captivating, thank you!
- mulhoon 2mo agoLoved it!
- rfool 2mo agoNice. Story and your writing style tell more about you as about Aaron. IMHO, with the second paragraph, Aaron starts to fade into background. While you increasingly describe your character in-depth, but also more and more often seem to advert an urge to apologize for ... something. I wonder what that is!?
- sarreph 2mo ago> seem to advert an urge to apologize for ... something. I wonder what that is!? I'm not sure I would have a satisfactory answer for that one, I'm afraid. Thank you nonetheless!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- ilamont 2mo agoThis is like a story from "Big Vern" in Viz, but instead of Vern being a violent London heavy, it's basically Ho from Slow Horses. https://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2006/12/i875/4998_big_vern.jpg https://assets.londonist.com/uploads/2006/12/i875/4998_big_v...
- sarreph 2mo agoAppreciate the Slow Horses reference, I can sort of see that too actually!
- lazydon 2mo agoNot sure why, but I thought this was going to be a friend of Aaron Swartz writing in memory of him.
- royal__ 2mo agoI legitimately thought this was real for about half of it and it made it very engaging, well done.
- Kim_Bruning 2mo agoI might have known an "aaron" or two like that.I've also known an actual "Aaron" who was famous for being extremely ethical and I initially clicked thinking it'd be a reminisce about that one. The story is written really well. Lots of other people have said great stuff about it, so I get some room to criticize a bit too! I just wonder about how you constructed the ending. It seemed like a different ending was coming in, and then the sudden <spoiler> out of nowhere is almost a diablo ex machina. It's just someone who comes out of nowhere, does one thing, and vanishes again, right at the end of the story, just to finish it. It's like "and then he woke up, and realized it was all a dream" ; except not quite as bad as that makes it sound. Intellectually (sherlock holmes reader style) you could see it coming, but somehow story-arc-wise not so much. I was totally on board with the story right up to that point though, so definitely good craft. (edit: was it deliberately a Shaggy Dog Story? If so the fact that there is a trope called "shoot the shaggy dog" is almost too on the nose, so I'm wondering if you had that in mind! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShaggyDogStory https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShaggyDogStory https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShootTheShaggyDog https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShootTheShaggyDo... )
- sarreph 2mo agoHaha I have not heard of the Shaggy Dog trope! (Or it’s only very vaguely familiar) I agree with you that the ending is a bit rushed, which I think can come off as forced. I’d like to blame the word count for the competition I submitted this into… :D I’d been thinking about the idea for this story for a couple of weeks before I actually started writing it, from which I had quite a visceral idea for the ending. So I guess in some ways I could have tried to weave it in more, but I also did kind of want it to be a shocker / surprise!
- triceratops 2mo ago> then the sudden <spoiler> out of nowhere is almost a diablo ex machina Matt Levine says that prediction markets don't just predict future events. They also create strong incentives to make them happen (or not happen). If you already knew that then the end was, I won't say predictable (hehe) - I was a bit surprised - but also not out of left field.
- 2mo ago
- jgilias 2mo agoHooked me with the first couple sentences, and I just had to keep going, as I just wanted to know what happens next. Thanks, a good read!
- iparaskev 2mo agoI almost missed my metro stop because I couldn't stop reading.
- sarreph 2mo agoHaha even though you almost missed your stop I'm glad I made something that captivated you!
- aesbetic 2mo agoI'm not sure if this is a consequence of reading about The Truman Show but, is every comment here made by a bot?
- zabriel_goss 2mo agoGripping! Wonderful surprise to read this today
- dstnn 2mo agoI just sent this to my 16 year old. Thank you for writing and sharing this
- sarreph 2mo agoThat’s awesome to hear, thank you.
- CoastalCoder 2mo agoI don't have my reading glasses on, so at first I read the title as "My Friend Arson". Different kind of story I reckon.
- croisillon 2mo agoanyone else gets an error? error loading dynamically imported module: https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js
- sarreph 2mo agoIt’s hard to tell how spontaneous this error is as I’ve only just launched this website, but will try to see if there’s a fix for it — thanks for the data!
- neuroticnews25 2mo agoI got this error too, I had to copy the story html from the page source to read it.
- r2ob 2mo agoI had to stop reading to leave the office and head home. I finished reading it while having dinner! It would make an excellent Black Mirror episode.
- sarreph 1mo agoAs a huge Black Mirror fan this is the highest praise -- glad to hear it brought you some entertainment.
- gmmachine 2mo agoTo OP: Well written. Certainly bridges the gap between fiction and a plausible and believable first person narrative. Are you familiar with the US magazine The Sun? https://www.thesunmagazine.org/ https://www.thesunmagazine.org/ I have read several short story submissions at The Sun; typically first person submissions which blur the lines between true first person stories, and fiction. Try to submit your story to The Sun.
- sarreph 2mo agoI have not heard of The Sun (only the UK tabloid!) -- thank you for sharing that. I will submit my story there!
- raver1975 2mo agoI won $10,000 betting on whether you would publish this story on hacker news. Thanks!
- jongjong 2mo agoI thought the story was non-fiction until I got to the point about how the bots attracted real users to Aaron's platform. That part was really stretching it.
- 9cb14c1ec0 2mo agoPrediction markets are a very powerful concept (and reality). With great power comes great responsibility.
- freetime2 2mo agoKind of reminds me a bit of the story from Better Call Saul. Someone who has the ability and opportunity to earn an honest living, but is addicted to endorphin rush of taking risks, cheating the system, fame, etc. I don't really know anybody like that, but there are certainly aspects of that personality that I can understand. I've never had much desire to get into bitcoin, meme stocks, prediction markets, and other forms of gambling - though at times I have felt a bit of FOMO. Another aspect I liked about the story is that when he goes from being a failure to being a success (at least in his own mind and to his followers) - despite having the same qualities that he has had for the whole story - he goes from being a character that you pity to one that you resent.
- mattoxic 2mo agoVery enjoyable. I was waiting for Aaron to have a heart attack, same outcome, less contrived maybe.
- jnaina 2mo agowas it his mom?
- jkjjjjjj 2mo ago[dead]
- hankbond 2mo agoI really enjoyed this piece. I thought the idea was creative and believable. It really sucked me in and kept the momentum going. I have a feeling it's going to stick with me for a while. I am absolutely not a writer so take this with a big grain of salt. Something about narrator felt like they weren't a real character and the whole story was just Aaron's third person. Maybe because the narrator didn't seem to have any intentional effect on Aaron's trajectory? Not sure if that was meant as a way to deepen that aspect of the story, but at times it felt a little awkward.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you for your feedback! > Something about narrator felt like they weren't a real character and the whole story was just Aaron's third person. That wasn't my intention, but others have pointed out the passiveness of the narrator. The narrator is supposed to be a character in the story in this instance. Will bear this in mind for future first-person narratives.
- cednore 2mo agoAm not a native English speaker, and I don't read stories much. Mostly the reason why I am at HN is to seek for tech news and learn something. But your story made a record to stuck me at a single page for 15+ mins. I need to tell you that i do have minor problem with my eyes, thus can't keep up with a almost-static screen for 5+ mins. But this one made me rub my eyes every 30 seconds but keep reading on. I can't tell what I felt in the ending paragraph, but I can be sure of this is the strongest outcome I felt, from an web page. Congrats, again.
- sarreph 2mo agoI'm glad I was able to give you something enjoyable to read! Thank you.
- gvne_ 2mo agoyou're not black mirror lil bro
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- Aaronneyer 2mo agoI clicked this because my name is Aaron and stayed around because it was such a captivating story all the way through to the end.
- sarreph 2mo agoThank you, Aaron! :)
- ChrisMarshallNY 2mo agoI enjoyed it. I have known a number of Aarons. Thanks for sharing it, and good luck!
- sarreph 1mo agoThank you for reading it, I appreciate it.
- foota 2mo agoAh shoot, I War of Worlds' myself. I didn't realize this was fiction until the end.
- zhainya 2mo agoReally great read! Thank you!
- simonebrunozzi 2mo agoUnable to render the site Failed to fetch dynamically imported module: https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js https://rorz.io/_next/static/chunks/link-CKkD60iF.js
- bertman 2mo agoYou can read the story in the html source.
- elias_t 2mo agoSame here
- sarreph 2mo agoThanks for flagging. Should be fixed now! I think it was some regions in Cloudflare (in this case a European one) not having all of the static `vinext` JS files ready immediately at deploy time, and then a `404` on that region sticking around due to very aggressive cacheing.
- ppnpm 2mo agoI was about to search for the Aron's website. Brilliantly written.
- sarreph 2mo ago> I was about to search for the Aron's website. It did cross my mind when I originally wrote this piece to make a parody website, but I forgot to and think it's a little late now... Thanks for your words!
- osullivj 2mo agoLovely bit of writing. I enjoyed being drawn in, and the dawning realisation that it is fiction. Aaron as a malign archetype was great too; techie Widmerpool even! One note of mild criticism: the narrator seems entirely passive, with none of his own life events.
- actionfromafar 2mo agoI think the passive narrator worked very well, a person kind of stuck in life would have had energy to spare for interacting with Aaron.
- ZeroDayDreamer 2mo ago[dead]
- TheJCDenton 2mo agoLoved it!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- Aachen 2mo agoI scrolled through all current comments and there's literally nobody who didn't enjoy it, at least not literally (some comments 'warn' that it's fiction, implying that they don't want to read that, not that they wouldn't otherwise have enjoyed it). Am I the only one? Feeling weird, like what's wrong with me then if everyone is posting that it's not just fine but amazing, gripping, such a great writer, fantastic, relatable, etc.
- stasomatic 2mo agoEngaging story. As it is fiction, were you influenced by personal events to write it? I don't have Aarons like this in my life, but there is one childhood friend who'd take on risks I'd be afraid to myself. Still my best friend. The airgun is a subtle touch. I am in Florida, all kinds of cowboys here, are BBs legal in the UK?
- sarreph 1mo ago> were you influenced by personal events to write it? I tried to build a Polymarket bot during Christmas break last year, and didn't get as far as I'd have liked to. But I spent a lot of time thinking about prediction markets thereafter and it certainly became a germination point for this story idea. > The airgun is a subtle touch. I am in Florida, all kinds of cowboys here, are BBs legal in the UK? I'm not sure actually -- it's great that you picked up on that detail though as I was trying to make that part more feasible for something based in the UK.
- stasomatic 1mo agoI tried to build a Polymarket bot during Christmas break last year, and didn't get as far as I'd have liked to. But I spent a lot of time thinking about prediction markets thereafter and it certainly became a germination point for this story idea. Well, this is a totally unexpected vector! Thx!
- anilkanthi 1mo agoMother of god. I thought this was a true story! What a way of writing. Great piece or art!