A little more than a decade ago, the video-game designer Davey Wreden experienced a crippling success. In October, 2013, he and a collaborator, William Pugh, released the Stanley Parable HD, a polished and expanded version of a prototype that Wreden had developed in college, and which he had made available, free of charge, two years before. Wreden and Pugh hoped that they might sell fifty thousand or so copies of the new version in the course of its lifetime. They sold that many on the first day. Wreden was twenty-five years old, and he had everything he'd ever wanted: money, success, recognition.

One of the Writers Guild of America strike issues is me. Writers are better than me! If I was good, I would have an Emmy. That's because I have no idea how to write anything interesting or that sounds like it was written by a real human being. That is why I am writing this op-ed.