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OP 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 g
by sarreph 2mo ago
OP 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.
- suprfnk 2mo agoVery well written! I haven't read such a long piece on the internet for quite a while but this hooked me immediately, and kept me hooked. Breath of fresh air between all the AI """writing""".
- mikestorrent 2mo agoIt so was. It's amazing how easily we can all tell what's written by a real person these days. It's gotta be like the early days of CGI.... ten years from now it'll be so hard to tell :( Thanks OP, great read
- jimbob45 2mo agoWhy make him #5 in WoW of all games? Arena has never been that prestigious and most players primarily engaged in PvE rather than PvP, which didn’t have such rankings.
- djriley 2mo agoAaron seems like the kind of guy who would sink a ton of time in to something so meaningless now, doesn't he?
- noman-land 2mo agoHe was #6.
- brailsafe 2mo agoPvE didn't necessarily have formal individual rankings at that time, but it sort of does now. PvP was a perfectly legit thing to be sweaty about ranking in. I had about 3 friends who were in some of the top rankings for their battlegroup for their classes.
- BrunoBernardino 2mo agoCongratulations! As someone who's written (micro and short) fiction for many years, I _feel_ how hard it is to get someone to read it. Enjoy it!
- xp84 2mo agoYou're a great writer. I haven't read a lot recently, but this was the type of story that I really could not stop reading. I also didn't see that it said "This is a short story" at the top, so I read more than half thinking it was nonfiction. Heh.
- apt-apt-apt-apt 2mo agoWish I had known it was fiction – read half of it thinking it was real.
- sarreph 2mo agoVery kind of you to say. Also see a lot of comments echoing your point about missing the fact that it was fiction... Next post might have a stronger disclaimer! (But I fear it actually worked in my favour here)
- herbertl 2mo agoI really enjoyed this! Thank you for writing and sharing.
- raajg 2mo agoCouldn't stop reading! It's been an embarrassingly long amount of time since I got hooked to something like this. Keep going!
- sgt101 2mo agoGood story, write more. You have a good NO AI style.
- thevivekshukla 2mo agoGood story. I was hooked.
- Mistletoe 2mo agoYou write wonderfully, direct, heartfelt, human, real, the opposite of LLM output, and that’s the highest honor I can bestow.
- chknkachunga 2mo agoSuperb storytelling. Thank you. This was fantastic.
- emadabdulrahim 2mo agoThis reads so well I was supposed to go out for a workout but I couldn't stop until I finished it. Incredibly engaging yet simple writing that flows well.
- fastidiousangle 2mo agofantastic - well done, couldn't stop reading!
- nicbou 2mo agoI love your website. The lists page is a brilliant idea and I might steal it from you. Human curation is such a luxury.
- sarreph 1mo ago> The lists page is a brilliant idea and I might steal it from you. You should! Tom MacWright's website[0] was a big influence on the design of my site. I especially took inspiration from how they structure their reading list and how I could apply that to more abstract objects that I wanted to document. [0] - https://macwright.com/ https://macwright.com/
- Otterly99 2mo agoSuper cool story! I actually had to look up "Come bet on Aaron’s life with us" to make sure it wasn't real. I also liked your WhatWeSee art exhibition, pretty interesting concept.
- sarreph 1mo ago> I actually had to look up "Come bet on Aaron’s life with us" to make sure it wasn't real. Another commenter suggested I could have made a parody site / post -- maybe an idea for next time... > I also liked your WhatWeSee art exhibition, pretty interesting concept. That's kind of you. I've been experimenting a lot recently with getting agents to make art, and the results are certainly interesting!
- kiq 2mo agogreat story. thank you for sharing, it perfectly captures whats going on right now with betting apps...
- chrisjj 2mo agoWell done! Looking forward to your next.
- gwbas1c 2mo agoI enjoyed the story! Opinion The ending is quite abrupt, I'd consider another short scene. Perhaps one at Aaron's funeral where there's a little more exposition about the shooter, such as with a conversation with Aaron's mom, or with the wider group of friends. For example, we don't know if the bet was paid out, or if the bettor had some relationship to the shooter. The shooting itself could have a bit more conflict and tension. Imagine if, for example, there was some kind of animosity due to a fight between Aaron and the narrator. (Instead of them drifting apart.) Then imagine that the narrator saw the bet before the race, saw someone suspicious, put two and two together, and tried to warn Aaron? Anyway, great story!
- JKCalhoun 2mo ago"The ending is quite abrupt" As was the ending of the young man's life. It works perfectly as is. Often in life there is no denouement.
- mayilian 1mo agoVery well written!