Ask HN: Share the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system
It's YC application time and this one of the best questions on the app. I love reading people's life hacks. Please share :)
4 comments
I live in a city with a very comprehensive bus service, cheap, reliable, all that good stuff.
Over time it became obvious that people who worked for the bus-company would just jump on the buses, chat briefly to the driver, and not pay. They'd get off after 1-15 stops and have ridden for free.
I figured there were sufficiently many bus-drivers and buses that they can't all have been personally familiar to each other, and reasoned that the "uniform" must have been what swayed it.
I created a replica-bus-driver-uniform and had a weekend where I rode around for free, unchallenged.
Not terribly useful, and perhaps not possible these days now that the staff also wear ID-cards a lot of the time, but I was a little pleased with myself regardless.
Over time it became obvious that people who worked for the bus-company would just jump on the buses, chat briefly to the driver, and not pay. They'd get off after 1-15 stops and have ridden for free.
I figured there were sufficiently many bus-drivers and buses that they can't all have been personally familiar to each other, and reasoned that the "uniform" must have been what swayed it.
I created a replica-bus-driver-uniform and had a weekend where I rode around for free, unchallenged.
Not terribly useful, and perhaps not possible these days now that the staff also wear ID-cards a lot of the time, but I was a little pleased with myself regardless.
Ignore the haters, I thought it was quite a fun project. Definitely creative.
Wow. That is shockingly dishonest. Are you a RoR 'developer' ...? Always trying to get something for nothing.. pathetic
Geez man... that did not seem like a proportional response to his story...
I learned how to sail without a rudder. The trick is to use the force differentials between the fore sail (jib) and main sail to steer. I did this on a 20 foot boat with a crew of 4 people, and could tack, jibe, and safely pick up a man overboard.
Here's a good one from FamilyLeaf's YC app: "We used a comedy twitter account to get meetings with tech superstars who wouldn't have returned our emails. In the week before our YC interview, we started @YC_Y_U_NO as a joke with the tech communityand ended up featured on TechCrunch -- and more importantly (coupled with serendipitously meeting FredWilson at the airport, who tweeted out Readstream) used cold DM's to build relationships with brilliant startuppeople, angel investors, and VCs (along with more than a few YC alums/Garry and Harj)."