Farcasters what's your answer to this famous YC question: Tell us a story where you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage?
My actual answer was in physics lab, I hacked the Millikan oil-drop experiment using a security camera and laser. Instead of squinting into the eyehole to watch the drops' fall altered by the magnetic field, I arranged the laser to illuminate the drops, and watched them on a monitor with a scale I added with a sharpie.
4 years ago i found a loophole in the university policy that allowed me to run a flea market on campus without having the vendors to pay the fee in the end, the event i was running ended up paying $300 total per event instead of $300 x 20 vendors per event
Wyndham has a tier matching policy with Ceasar and Ceasar to MGM, MGM to Hyatt. For a while, if you have a Visa infinite card or something similar, you can be matched Wyndham diamond without ever stay a day in their property and get all four membership elite status.
classic I made the golf karts faster with a water bottle
i said yes he said no, i said yes he said no, i quickly said no he said yes.
Turned a major D1 school into a basketball school
A lot of people know that abandon cart can give you a discount shopping online, but I abuse aggressive churn offers MealPal used to offer me 3-6 months of meals in NYC for ~$2.50 per meal. After I finish I churn and go fishing for the best deal they can offer me đŁđ
When I was a kid, Taco Bell had a game where if you could land a coin on bottom lever youâd win an item on menu. Noticed if you gently shake column itâs much easier to win. Could get entire meal for 40c. I won almost every time and ended up getting rate limited to 1 try per day.
Interesting travel hack thatâs saved me a lot of money: When booking a hotel, find the top businesses based in the same area, then call the hotel and tell them you have several business meetings and are looking for the best rate. Go down the list one-by-one and theyâll give you the top rate, no questions asked.
I had a totaled car that insurance wanted to pay me $7k for. I looked up the laws on how an agent was supposed to create a valuation so I emailed the agent and asked to see his record for creating the comps. He called me back directly and asked straight up how much I wanted. I got $21k instead of $7k.
dropped out of high school at 17 so i could load up on community college classes. routed around min age (18) or current high school student requirements by enrolling in a home school program that i never actually participated in. completed a bunch of design classes then was lucky enough to go work for a famous designer
Got along great with my college advisor, bought them flowers a lot, told them I was dropping out to start a company, they moved some credits around and graduated me early.
being a nice, kind human that smiles and asks people their name :)