Ask Lemmy

Pirate everything, block ads, guillotine billionaires

Not a lifehack, just a reminder that legality is not an indicator of whether something is ethical

For the US: The Supreme Court has ruled that flashing your lights to alert other drivers of an upcoming speed trap is protected by your First Amendment rights.

Flipping off a cop is also protected, but that's less helpful to others.

Torrent everything. If it's legal for a company to cancel my subscription then torrenting isn't unethical.

Use the free tier if you are low-income. Privacy and security shouldn't be for those with money.

I'm not sure about unethical, but blocking ads is a big one for me. The WWW is unusable without blocking ads.

When I wanted to start using contact lenses, they gave me a pair of those that last one month for free to try them out, I didn't find them entirely comfortable so they gave another pair of another brand, and a third one. Then I started again on another place, and another, I think I went a full year without paying for contact lenses.

Every year, call your insurance/internet/phone/TV etc. provider and tell them one of their competitors gave you a lower quote and you want them to match it or come close.

They will often give you a better rate just for asking. It's easier if you do have an actual quote to compare it against but you don't need one. Everything is made up. Just ask to pay less and threaten to stop paying them and they'll often just give it to you.

Even if they refuse, just say, "Okay. I need some time to think about whether or not I want to continue our relationship or switch." Hang up and do nothing.

None, I strongly advocate for ethics in all things.

Now if we want to talk about illegal lifehacks, that's a different ballgame.

If you get junk mail with a return envelope, it's automatically paid by whoever sent it, so you can mail back whatever you want, like vulgar imagery or blank forms

Need a phone charger? Walk into any hotel, say you stayed here a while ago, and accidentally left your phone charger in your room. You’re finally back in town, and decided to swing by to see if they have a lost-and-found box. 99% of the time, they’ll just pull out a cardboard box full of chargers and let you pick one. No questions asked, no follow-up, no verification. They get left behind in hotel rooms all the time, so the hotel’s lost-and-found is almost always full of them.

I used to freelance, and used this all the time when I was between gigs and just needed to chill for a few hours. If I had taken the train downtown and didn’t have my car charger, I’d just find whatever hotel was closest after my gig, and stop there. They’d let me grab a charger, and I’d pop over to a cafe to sit and watch TV/YouTube on my phone for a while. And then when it was time to leave for my next gig, I’d just leave the charger at the cafe for someone else to find later. I didn’t worry about keeping track of them, because I never intended to hold onto them in the first place. My car charging cable is from a hotel. My bedside charging cable is from a hotel. My desk charging cable is from a hotel. I haven’t actually purchased a USB-C cable in literal years.

If you really want to piss people off, treat every individual with compassion and dignity. Even (especially) if they don't treat themselves like that.

Also, corporations are not people, my friend. So use the above to help guide your social engineering tactics.

Not unethical or illegal, but avoiding a barrier, if you have a problem that a company won't solve using regular customer service means, spend time to find their email formula (FnameLname or FLname or FnameL @company.com) do some online searching, and then email your unhelpful CSO person and start to CC senior people in the company "to bring this error to their attention."

If the unhelpful CSO person hasn't messed up, then it's no heat on them and their supervisor will just say "ugh, just get rid of this guy," and solve your problem. I've used this method a dozen or so times, works well.

Watch youtube through other apps like Grayjoy If people are having a conversation in a dumb spot, walk through the middle of them

Keep a reflective umbrella in the passenger seat. When an asshole with death beams tailgates you, have the passenger open it across the back seats

If you want a free quarter, make an online order at Aldi that is large enough for them to load into a cart and also justify you taking the cart out to your car. Return said cart to the cart line and boom free quarter.

If you are working as a contractor and make above a certain wage it can be worth it to setup your own LLC/S-corp. I did it one year at the advice of my CPA and it immediately knocked off 30% of my AGI. Lowered my pass thru income and tax liability. Saved me many thousands over 20 years. Its what every corporation in America does.

When shopping, I like to make it seem extremely likely I am stealing to help poor people who actually need to steal to survive.

For example, when picking up a soda, I furtively look to my left and right to make sure no one is looking and crouch my head down. I pick up things and make it seem like I may be putting it in a pocket at times before putting it back. When security guards say hi, I don't make eye contact or reply back and put my head down as if hiding.

I never actually steal and haven't ever shoplifted anything.

I have been kicked out stores many times for abnormal behavior, but never while stealing.

Fake stupidity or ignorance, just a little. Otherwise, you risk getting people on their defensive sides (e.g., doctors, lawyers, architects).

Tell the truth all the time, be the most honest person everyone knows. That way when you really fuck something up they'll believe you when you say it wasn't you

Lying will get you want you want most of the time.

I wouldn't recommend it, because its an asshole move, but go into basically any mcdonalds and complain that you placed an order and it was missing (whatever you want). You may have to act the cunt here. They will just give you whatever you want for free. Sometimes you may need to escalate to a manager. They do not get paid enough to deal with it, and dont want your negativity affecting the other customers.