Yes, they hacked the Gibson.
6,842 karma · joined March 30, 2007
Started out as a one-shot attempt, but ~200 prompts later it's at a place where it's at least fun to watch the AI teams destroy each other.
The game reminds me of sitting down at a poker table in a casino. It's very unforgiving - you grind, invest a lot of time, and make calculated bets as to whether you can win or lose a raid, but you can instantly lose everything in a failed raid.
I wish someone would make a browser-based version that was fun to play, and I've thought about it for some time, but the struggle is scoping an MVP that is as compelling given the constraints (eg a 2d or top-down version makes it harder to do things like build multi-story buildings and raid them).
I’m not here to propose a solution. I’m here as an end-user saying I won’t go back to the old experience which is outdated and broken.
Perhaps a way to serve ads through the agents would be good enough. I'd prefer that to be some open protocol than controlled by a company.
- Ability to clearly define requirements up front (the equivalent mistake in coding interviews is to start by coding, rather than asking questions and understanding the problem + solution 100% before writing a single line of code). This might be the majority of the interview.
- Ability to anticipate where the LLM will make mistakes. See if they use perplexity/context7 for example. Relying solely on the LLM's training data is a mistake.
- A familiarity with how to parallelize work and when that's useful vs not. Do they understand how to use something like worktrees, multiple repos, or docker to split up the work?
- Uses tests (including end-to-end and visual testing)
- Can they actually deliver a working feature/product within a reasonable amount of time?
- Is the final result looking like AI slop, or is it actually performant, maintainable (by both humans and new context windows), well-designed, and follows best practices?
- Are they able to work effectively within a large codebase? (this depends on what stage you're in; if you're a larger company, this is important, but if you're a startup, you probably want the 0->1 type of interview)
- What sort of tools are they using? I'd give more weight if someone was using Claude Code, because that's just the best tool for the job. And if they're just doing the trendy thing like using Claude Agents, I'd subtract points.
- How efficient did they use the AI? Did they just churn through tokens? Did they use the right model given the task complexity?
For some new stuff I'm working on, I use Rails 8. I also use Railway for my host, which isn't as widely-used as a service like Heroku, for example. Rails 8 was just released in November, so there's very little training data available. And it takes time for people to upgrade, gems to catch up, conversations to bubble up, etc. Operating without these two MCP servers usually caused Claude Code to repeatedly stumble over itself on more complex or nuanced tasks. It was good at setting up the initial app, but when I started getting into things like Turbo/Stimulus, and especially for parts of the UI that conditionally show, it really struggled.
It's a lot better now - it's not perfect, but it's significantly better than relying solely on its training data or searching the web.
I've only used Claude Code for like 4 weeks, but I'm learning a lot. It feels less like I'm an IC doing this work, and my new job is (1) product manager that writes out clear PRDs and works with Claude Code to build it, (2) PR reviewer that looks at the results and provides a lot of guidance, (3) tester. I allocate my time 50%/20%/30% respectively.
- No caffeine after 12pm. I stopped drinking coffee a few months ago, but I was fine as long as I didn’t have it after 12.
- Exercise with some portion being vigorous HIIT or lifting. Running also helps. It should tire your nervous system out.
- Have a consistent sleep schedule. Don’t oversleep on weekends. I’m up at 6:30am every day, give myself 30 min to wake up. Get some sunlight to flush out the adenosine in your system (do this before you drink coffee to avoid the afternoon crash).
- AC goes to 67’f at night.
- Don’t work or study in bed.
- I bought a nice bed (Purple Premier 4 King).
- Blue light-blocking glasses about 2 hours before bedtime.
- Not being a founder helps a lot, but figuring out stress relievers otherwise.
- No alcohol. I’ve mostly stopped drinking, but this alone was the worst thing for my sleep. If I do drink, earlier is better, and only a few drinks.
- Mouthguard that prevents me from snoring at night. I don’t snore as much when I have a healthy BMI, but when overweight, I snore more.
- Stop working 2 hours before bedtime. Same for gaming. These things are too mentally stimulating.
- The things that stress you out, figure those out and make sure you’re feeling good about progress each day. For founders, this sometimes just won’t go away.
- I’ve tried prescribed sleeping medications, but the one I took didn’t actually improve quality sleep. It just made me feel tired and removed the stress. Some of these drugs are just sledgehammers on the pre-frontal cortex.
- Use a sleep tracker and figure out why you’re not sleeping well. Usually can be tracked to alcohol, large meals close to bedtime, or caffeine.
- I take melatonin at bedtime. I had fatigue that I believed was because of poor sleep since moving to Austin, but realized from a doctor that it was actually just allergies. I take Singulair, made a huge difference in my energy during the day.
Edit: thanks to those who played, we finished up the game. We'll do another one tomorrow at 2pm Pacific.