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

I'm in the art scene, and when it comes to submitting proposals for exhibitions and being in art/film festivals and such, competing against other people being picked is surprisingly easy when you realise that most people don't study the brief that tells you exactly what the organisations is looking for. make sure you nail everything in the brief and you're in the lead, even if your art is terrible. I feel this is similar in nature, but taken to its extreme.

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

When I was visiting India for work back in 2006, I got my name published on The Times of India newspaper. I was reading it while having breakfast at the hotel, and I saw this sports related question, and all you had to do was to send an email with your answer. So, I did that. And apparently, only a few people did it. I got my name printed on the next issue.<p>We&#x27;re talking about a national newspaper with a circulation of ~3 million at the time. I still keep the copy of the issue with my name. Sometimes, just showing up can take you to the top 0.0002%. :)

A gamed a contest into a brief TV career once.<p>A British computer TV show ran a content on their web site, but it was a fast-paced multiple-choice Flash game. I just opened three accounts. Ran through it with the first two to figure out all the right answers, then got perfect scores on the third.<p>The prize was to co-present the show one time, but apparently they got so much positive feedback they made me permanent, until I found a new job. I never let them know I cheated :&#x2F;<p>This is the show. I only did it because I had a huge crush on Kate Russell:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=1q6yPcUwatg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=1q6yPcUwatg</a>

Is it common for contests to post all the entries before the contest is over? Even if they do, why wouldn&#x27;t smart competitors enter at the last minute in order to prevent their competitors from benefiting from their work?

Love the use of Playwright for the contest intel...I am currently using Playwright to redo some prior scraping projects and seeing real world examples such as these is a big help.<p>You attack the problem like blackjack card-counter would. You assess the rules, make mathematical odds projections when possible and logical ones when not, and keep a keen eye on what you are up against as to judge how to best attack the money.<p>Thanks for the smart write-up...its been a big inspiration for me.

<p><pre><code> Lubricating a sliding door Quieting a squeaky door hinge Lubricating an HVAC register lever </code></pre> Wd-40 is not really a lubricant. You can use WD-40 to clean gunk out of things, but you really need to follow it up with a proper lubricating oil

Hahaha this is great dude. Also your creative fae submission is fantastic. I can see why it didn’t win but it’s amusing.<p>The ElevenLabs narrator did say the faeries applied “Polish”. From Gdańsk or Warsaw? :)

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

This is just work! You made eight commercials for a megacorporation for $300 a piece, right? Sounds like you are undercharging!<p>I did a contest once and won $2500. In the end the part I spent 2 weeks on made like $50, and the part I spent 30 minutes on right before the deadline made $2000. Not sure what lesson to take from that...<p>It was way more work than expected, especially because they had us do a peer review that took like 80% of the actual time. So in the end I probably made close to minimum wage and most of it was not fun. But the novelty at least made it sorta-worth it.

One huge question is whether or not you took the time to read the T&amp;C yourself, or got ChatGPT to analyse that for you too. Regardless, I&#x27;m in awe of your approach to being a serial contester.

Pro-Tip: WD-40 isn&#x27;t a very durable lubricant or a very useful penetrant oil. It was designed for aerospace purposes but DIY users cargo-culted it and it became a product.<p>For lubrication, use a more appropriate lubricant like lithium or graphite grease, motor oil, cutting oil, or dry lubricant in dusty environments.<p>For a penetrant oil, 50-50 (by volume) acetone &amp; ATF is one of the best for rusty ferric materials. (And, in general, you should be using an anti-seize compound orthreadlocker, and&#x2F;or surface coatings to prevent rust.)

As soon as you listed the full set of prizes I was really hoping to see that gallon jug haha. Nice job!

I wonder if the mispronunciation of &quot;polish&quot; as &quot;Polish&quot; had anything to do with missing out on a win with the fairy submission? Fun read!

Oh no, its the AWD vs 4WD thing all over again.<p>Is WD-40 a lubricant? Apparently, again, it depends!

Very cool! I think the one that didn&#x27;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&#x27;s also not the intended use of WD-40 which makes it too far fetched for a potential marketing use.

Of the three AI tools the author talked about, two of them (OpenAI and Sumo) are facing lawsuits for copyright stuff[1]. That by no means invalidates what he&#x27;s done, but more speaks to the interesting times we live in. These tools both saved him time and improved his product. I hope we find a way to have our AI cake and still feed our originators of content.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;variety.com&#x2F;vip&#x2F;content-owner-lawsuits-against-ai-companies-comprehensive-updated-index-1236101707&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;variety.com&#x2F;vip&#x2F;content-owner-lawsuits-against-ai-co...</a>

So it&#x27;s two days of work for a chance at two days of pay.

<p><pre><code> Did you spend more time working on this blog post than on the contest? Yes. </code></pre> Kind of feels line author spent more time researching their odds than working on the submission as well.

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.

Wait, wait, wait! He actually BELIEVED that they would judge the entrees as stated? They could EASILY have just used the opinion of the marketing guy responsible for this, and ignored the actual &quot;judging of the entries based on the following..&quot; yeah, right.

Weirdest thing about this to me is this guy apparently enters online competitions enough that he has a strict filtering criteria for them. It&#x27;s a hobby I wouldn&#x27;t have even dreamed of someone having, yet it seems it can be quite profitable.

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&#x27;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 still be a good wage - do you pay taxes on context wins?<p>But for every contest he enters and puts effort in what is the overall payoff, seems unlikely to be this high, and with that I would think it seems like a bunch of stuff to do for little money.

Really interesting and amusing post thanks for taking the time to write it and share it.

It took me a while to realise that it was a WD-40 branded one gallon jug and not one gallon of WD-40 in a jug...

Incredible. One of the winning human made video submissions says:<p>&quot;There&#x27;s something almost poetic about working with your hands. In a world where everything has gone digital, where things get solved with a click and a swipe, there&#x27;s a unique satisfaction about tackling something tangible, something real.&quot;<p>Then there&#x27;s this guy who algorithmically floods the contest with AI slop. Click and a swipe indeed!

This is awesome!<p>Is there somewhere that contests like these are tracked?<p>Would be awesome to browse.

Hey can you tell me which sling are you using and weight of the baby?

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What people don’t realise is that the true competition he was trying to enter, was to get on HN by following the correct formula of including the keywords AI, maths, an amount of money, and a novel item (WD-40).

I once ran an ultra marathon distance and had no lubricant but getting a bad rash so I sprayed my thighs and balls with WD-40 which I found outside someone’s garage. It lasted me almost 15 miles until I could buy some Vaseline. Off label use probably

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;9PFZTPSOkdY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;9PFZTPSOkdY</a>

TL;DR: submitting multiple entries increases your chances of winning.

How I won $2,750 using JavaScript, AI, a can of WD-40 and One Secret Factor That Makes This Process Unrepeatable and Useless To The Reader<p>&gt; Where do you find these exceedingly winnable contests? Sorry, that’s a trade secret — but it’s not any of the standard various contest aggregators out there.

This is an excellent example of using LLMs to convert knowledge into productivity and profit. This will be the way forward: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lycee.ai&#x2F;blog&#x2F;large-language-models-productivity-and-profits" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lycee.ai&#x2F;blog&#x2F;large-language-models-productivity...</a>