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How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

davekiss.com

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Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#161

Post by bryanrasmussen »

isaacfung wrote: post #151
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #150

doing the write up on the contest of course has its own benefits, it just seems to me whenever I read one of these things I think it isn't worthwhile. Not just this contest, this one seemed worthwhile, but this has to also be compared with all the other contests, payoffs etc. This seems like a big win that even if it took 20 hours (which seems the max of time it could have taken - given edits took 8 hours) would stil…

bro, it's not just about the money. He's promoting himself, building up a portfolio, learning new skills and entertaining himself.

if you work for money you build up a portfolio and probably learn new skills - it is difficult not to.

I have considered doing this before, contests etc. but I'm not sure I can breakdown the actual cost of doing it, the benefit, and risk to be able to see what one actually gets from the time devoted.

Not to say that I might not do other things that cannot be quantified easily either, but in the contests case I want more quantification, I guess it just seems more likely a waste of time to me.

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#162

Post by langsoul-com »

julianeon wrote: post #112
TrackerFF wrote: post #13

I love that 75% of the post was OP checking the math on whether or not he should join the contest.

I'm somewhat skeptical of this amount of validation. There's a solid educational consensus on how to become the best at something: do it a lot. If your goal is to winning contests, you should really prioritize cranking through them: getting practice at getting better. Don't try to make a masterpiece. Instead focus on becoming fast at creating entries, doing them according to the rules, and sending them off. Like thos…

You neglected that time is the most important variable here.

It's better to enter a winnable completion rather than one that cannot be found without disproportionate effort.

Hackathons are a good example. Global, online ones tend to be long, time consuming and near impossible to win any prize. Compare that with local only, now there's a chance as the number of competitors is limited to the geographical region.

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#163

Post by thinkingemote »

davekiss wrote: post #27
awoimbee wrote: post #22

That 8th entry pouring loads on WD40 on trees is just crazy, that thing is petroleum distillate !

Don't worry, this is a stump that's been dead for years, isolated to a very small garden bed in my yard

"dead" stumps provide an essential home to insects, plants, lichen, fungi and other stuff. Rotting wood is essential for a healthy ecosystem. These days it is not seen as unwanted, dead or waste material from a tree but part of a life cycle. It is a living habitat.

So the judges may have seen something different rather than protecting, preserving and prioritising your family and the joyful and creative structures for children's play. At the very least it would give ambiguity in today's more ecological minded world.

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#164

Post by thaumasiotes »

raincole wrote: post #127
mhb wrote: post #101

Is it common for contests to post all the entries before the contest is over? Even if they do, why wouldn't smart competitors enter at the last minute in order to prevent their competitors from benefiting from their work?

The main point of this article is that most competitors are not that competitive (for some reason).

The reason might be that they had their entry lying around and the cost of entering the competition was very low.

This appears to be true of writing anthologies; it's pretty common that Amazon is running a sale on some anthology or other that advertises an incredibly high-powered list of contributing authors. But the quality on these is lower than you might expect.

I understood why when one of Brandon Sanderson's blog posts mentioned that he was solicited to contribute to one of these that was raising money for some charitable purpose, and he sent them a piece of writing he'd done for a different book that hadn't made the cut to be included in that book.

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#165

Post by thaumasiotes »

hi_hi wrote: post #122
teruakohatu wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any low viscosity liquid is a lubricant including water, or any small enough solids. WD40 is a lubricant, but a very poor one for folks who have not discovered silicone spray lubricant. That said if all I had was an old can of WD40, I would use it. The funny thing is where I live you can buy “WD40 Lubricant” (silicone). I think many people buy WD40 because, unconsciously or not, the smell brings back memories.

Right, and this is probably the important bit, sometimes a poor lubricant is worse than no lubricant, and its really important to understand when something like WD-40 should be used and when it absolutely should not. Let me explain. I ride motorbikes. You don't want to be using WD-40 on the chain as it will strip it of any existing lubricant and dry it out, which as you can imagine, is bad. However, it's actually rea…

> You don't want to be using WD-40 on the chain as it will strip it of any existing lubricant and dry it out, which as you can imagine, is bad. However, it's actually really useful for cleaning parts of the bike that have been covered in gunk and grease.

If you asked me to name the part of a bike most likely to be covered in gunk and grease, I'd say the chain. ;p

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#167

Post by mock-possum »

thinkingemote wrote: post #163
davekiss wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, this is a stump that's been dead for years, isolated to a very small garden bed in my yard

"dead" stumps provide an essential home to insects, plants, lichen, fungi and other stuff. Rotting wood is essential for a healthy ecosystem. These days it is not seen as unwanted, dead or waste material from a tree but part of a life cycle. It is a living habitat. So the judges may have seen something different rather than protecting, preserving and prioritising your family and the joyful and creative structures for…

Yeah the anti-eco optics was my first though too - also the voiceover is a little more obviously AI. “Dump chemicals into the forest, brought to you by WD-40” isn’t a super appealing message (regardless of what was actually happening / intended)

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#168

Post by mock-possum »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #23

I can simultaneously appreciate the write-up for gaming a competition while also dreading how it basically describes the incentives for contributing to the AI-enshittification of the internet.

Do you think someone else could have won without AI? The author didn’t exactly win the grand prize here - he cleaned up the smaller prizes because other people weren’t so good at reading comprehension or competitive analysis. The only role AI even played here was the audio, not the concept or the video or the edits. I’m not quite sure what your complaint is I guess.

Re: How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, and a can of WD-40

#170

Post by camillomiller »

Very cool! I think the one that didn't win was not selected because potentially problematic to use for the brand. Spraying WD-40 on the ground could be seen as polluting, and they would probably want to stay away from that. It's also not the intended use of WD-40 which makes it too far fetched for a potential marketing use.
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