HACKER Q&A
📣 kqcso

Looking for a link to a short story I read in a comment here


I recently enjoyed a short story that (I think) was linked in a comment to a post here, but I can't find it now. All of my searches are resulting in the wrong stories, and even AI is flummoxed. I'm probably misremembering the details, but does anyone recall a highly satirical story about a future where:

- The main character starts as a beggar, but was one of the richest people in the world last night...they will win (and lose) their fortune again tonight, assumingly this will be a common pattern for the forseeable future

- Similarly, the main character will marry the most desirable woman in the world when his fortune is regained, only to divorce a short while later when it is lost again

- (this memory sketchy) Humans have had a part of their brain removed that effectively speed limited them - they are now "overclocked" for lack of a better term.

- (this memory is sketchy too) Humans are divided into 2 or 3 categories that are active during 8-12 hour windows of the day? The main character does all their invention/investment money making/losing over night?

- Because search and AI can't find it, I don't think it is a famous work by a famous author. Maybe even a recent-ish blog post/work of fiction? The writing felt older though, with a bit of a Vonnegut vibe (but not Vonnegut).

Would love to find the story as I want to pass it on to some friends, so any help is much appreciated.


  👤 ahazred8ta Accepted Answer ✓
The classic Slow Tuesday Night (1965) by R. A. Lafferty. I liked the part where they use an AI-assisted ghostwriting machine to spit out a scholarly text in seconds. (People who buy it just read the quick summary.)

https://www.ralafferty.org/works/stories/slow-tuesday-night/

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Slow+Tuesday+Night