

Ask HN: Share the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system - ramoq

It&#x27;s YC application time and this one of the best questions on the app. I love reading people&#x27;s life hacks. Please share :)
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stevekemp
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.

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turdpress_dev
Wow. That is shockingly dishonest. Are you a RoR 'developer' ...? Always
trying to get something for nothing.. pathetic

~~~
stevekemp
The effort involved to get the right coloured trousers, shirt, tie, and jacket
far outweighed the fares I should have paid..

~~~
yen223
So not only was it morally ambiguous, you didn't even benefit financially?

All in good fun I suppose...

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jtfairbank
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.

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ramoq
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)."

