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.
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.
I grok that as the author having a sick sense of humor. I like it....
are we not all slaves to the top hat?
This is filthy undercrow talk!
Are we the Baddies? <i>Yes, and how interesting. I could vibe a game about that.</i>
When did peddling dietary supplements and crypto go out of fashion?
Understandig how the hammer falls tells you where to stand to avoid it.
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.<p>A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
Once I realized I couldn’t decline, I left the website and left the top hat on the table.
Your reply reminded me of the free game Oiligarchy by Molleindustria (which made quite a few indie hits in my opinion).<p>In that game, if you played "well" you ended up destroying the world. The only winning move was, indeed, not to play.
I think OP is referring to the 80's movie WarGames - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames</a><p>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".
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).<p>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 :)<p>---<p>[1] <a href="https://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy/" rel="nofollow">https://www.molleindustria.org/en/oiligarchy/</a>
I feel like I'm missing something here. Was this supposed to be a game? I just kept clicking and reading and clicking and reading. I finally gave up. If the goal is to tell a non-interactive story, I'd rather just scroll...
In case you're wondering, there are 106 CEOs / companies, and at 107 it just loops around.
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.
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...<p>(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.)
CAWn't believe how hard this hits
This is a play on words from this (excellent) NYTimes Opinion piece by Jasmine Sun [1] titled "Silicon Valley is bracing for the permanent underclass"<p>[1]": <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-force-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l1A.2MIV.BiX3xJpcKnCE&smid=url-share" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-for...</a><p>(Gift article)
I find this exact attribution very unlikely; this article is from April 2026 and the term "permanent underclass" is used in this way since at least 2025.<p>In fact, the repo says:<p><pre><code> This is my social commentary on the "Permanent Upper Class" philosophical virus that has spread through San Francisco tech communities like the plague in the last year or so. You can read the original blog post [here].
While the game tells a grim story, my goal with this is to show how ridiculous this way of thinking is. I'm actually more optimistic that humans will find a way to prevent this future but if we don't then I suppose none of us will don top hats for eternity.
</code></pre>
and links to <a href="https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-class" rel="nofollow">https://www.jasonwu.ink/signals/2026-05-27-permanent-upper-c...</a>
Reminded me of a book called Finite and Infinite Games
It’s a book I have tried to read 10 times. It’s to complicated, my context window is to limited.
The one by Simon Sinek? I've just picked it for reading this week
So that's how you become a galactic civilization!
I feel stupid but I could not bring myself to click the "sign" button and continue gameplay.<p>A lot of electronic contracts are done like that and... nope, not clicking it... Mmmmm.... nope.
It never ends…<p>Super cool concept
Beautiful
Well done! Fun and satirical
hey when does this game end?
I honestly love the look of the website. It makes me want to play/make a 2d scroller.
This is quality
Brilliant
Yep, this is basically the world today. The only difference in the real world:<p>"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"<p>"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"<p>"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"