The $5000 Compression Challenge
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderI absolutely believe Mike should have paid Patrick. On the simple premise that since Mike was hosting a bet that he KNEW was impossible (i.e. under no circumstance, ever, would he have to pay the 5000$), then literally the only point of the game is to find any loopholes. Otherwise it's just Mike preying on unsuspecting victims. If you design an impossible game, the only possible thing for anyone to do is to break it. If you then complain that…
The original email thread was from 2001, and it gets posted to HN periodically: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=patrickcraig.co.uk For another compression challenge that is still ongoing, try "500000€ Prize for Compressing Human Knowledge" (also known as "Hutter Prize"): http://prize.hutter1.net/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37502329 - Hutter Prize for compressing human knowledge (2023-09-13, 215 comments)
surprised all the comments here are about whether he achieved compression or not. Point = Missed! the entire thing was an ingenious trolling exercise, as he says, to 'out trick the trickster'. his goal was to exploit the loose wording of the challenge, and prove a point (possibly winning $5k in the process); I found it an entertaining story along those lines. it proves nothing (new) about compression, or lack of it; he even stats that the consensus at the…
Poetic justice. I love this quotation from Mike: "I think that I did not make a mistake except to believe that you truly intended to attempt to compress the data I was sending you." Mike is happily preying upon people by taking their money to enter what he believes is an impossible contest, but the moment he is outsmarted he appeals to morals and calls into question whether Patrick was acting honestly. I'm guessing there is some backstory on this…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 659
- Total comments
- 534
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-03-04 | The $5000 Compression Challenge | grifaton | 1 | 0 |
| 2012-10-05 | The $5000 Compression ChallengeFirst breakout | jpablo | 104 | 119 |
| 2013-01-08 | The $5000 Compression Challenge | igul222 | 42 | 61 |
| 2015-03-08 | The $5000 Compression ChallengeBest thread | vq | 323 | 168 |
| 2021-03-04 | The $5000 Compression ChallengeHall induction | dajoh | 2 | 1 |
| 2023-01-18 | The $5000 Compression Challenge (2001) | optimalsolver | 3 | 0 |
| 2024-07-16 | The $5000 Compression Challenge (2001) | Nition | 3 | 0 |
| 2024-11-23 | The $5000 Compression Challenge (2001)Latest 20+ point return | ekiauhce | 181 | 185 |