3 ms·

Wish I knew about the emphasis about hacking a system question and I would have elaborated on my application.... Although it is a difficult question to put emp

• edanm 16y ago
  I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to "beat" a system. Sometimes it involves a win-win situation.
• wolfrom 16y ago
  I think it depends on the system. Making a system more efficient often depends on bending the rules. We had trouble coming up with examples for our application, because most of the "hacking" we've done isn't anything to brag about. But at the same time, we do need to show that we're willing to ask forgiveness later if we can't get permission now.
• araneae 16y ago
  Right. Like I started forging the report cards I gave to my parents starting in 8th grade. I'm not proud of that. Would I really put that on an application?
  • raganwald 16y ago
    I have no idea what Y Combinator thinks about the answer to that question. But if Paul asked me to help out by reviewing some applications, I'd probably send you an email asking how that was to your advantage.
    • deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    • mrchess 16y ago
      Actually I did something like araneae stated, I started hiding my transcripts in high school and college to avoid drama between my folks because I was NOT a good student -- the formal education system wasn't for me. There was even one point in college where I was failing out, but gamed the GPA system so that they couldn't kick me out. Anyway, it worked well for me. I didn't get any drama, and I ended up graduating and landing a job with a top 25 software company.
  • wensing 16y ago
    I think the right answer would involve a hack that bent or even broke the written rules but made everyone wealthier (better off) in the end.
  • elai 16y ago
    It can also be when you went to to a 3rd party wireless store and got them to add a cheap unlimited tetherable data plan that no one knows about and is in the "depreciated/archived" features section.
• raganwald 16y ago
  Why would you ever want to openly admit you beat ie. cheated a system Sometimes your audience is sympathetic because they perceive that the system you're beating is broken. I read Victor Kiam's "autohagiography," and in it he recounts a story about how parking at a baseball game was impossible to get, but there was a special lot just for limos. So he grabs a peaked cap, puts on a dark suit, and drives his buddies to the game, right into the limo lot. That (possibly apocryphal) anecdote is a perfect little story of ingenuity and hacking the system without confessing to moral corruption, more of a right the imbalance and tweak the nose of a big, unlikeable organization kind of thing.
• noverloop 16y ago
  'Systems' is a very broad term. Every group of people that consistently does something has a system for it. while in programming a system is denoted by strict rules, in human interaction it's based on incentives (including social incentives). So, you can get somebody to do something if it strokes with his incentive or you can try to subvert the incentives. It's not by definition an immoral thing to do. e.g. a real-estate broker wants to sell a house as quickly as possible, so they tend to sell houses slightly below market-value and then convince you it's the best you'll get. you can rig this incentive in your favor by telling the broker you've contacted two brokers and will accept the highest bid. I actually applied this one recently as my sister was looking for a renter and had contacted only 1 broker. I convinced her to get a second opinion and she got a way better offer.
• gcheong 16y ago
  I think a good example would be the way Randy Pausch "hacked" his way onto NASA's "vomit comet". There was a program for students and faculty were not allowed so he couldn't go as a teacher, but he scoured the rules and found out that press were allowed so he found a way to get a press pass. He didn't break any of the stated rules, just found a loophole he could squeeze through.
• arghnoname 16y ago
  A lot of people seem to express your sentiment. I find that surprising. I would have thought anyone who went to University has done this sort of thing many times, for instance. As large bureaucratic organizations, they are infinitely 'hackable.' Education generally has lots of opportunities. I've added classes after taking the finals for them, for instance. You know that's not what they intend. Any system that loves its rules is ripe for this sort of thing. My wife's mother was born in Canada but came over as a child and had to renounce her citizenship at one point. They changed their rules so we were able to get her citizenship re-instated and my wife can be a Canadian citizen too. She's never even been to Canada. I always get a little thrill out of beating rules people with their rules. These things aren't harmful (generally) to members of the system, though these kinds of loopholes only tend to exist as long as they aren't too greatly used. Now being a welfare cheat or talking about how much you like shoplifting is probably not a good idea, but doesn't everyone commit a little harmless loophole exploitation from time to time? EDIT: The general weakness of institutions are rules. Anyone wanted to disrupt such things needs to know how to exploit those weaknesses.
• sbisker 16y ago
  I think "beating" is fundamentally different than "hacking." I view hacking as more of an act of creativity, or at the very worst an act of defiance. "Beating" implies that someone has been "beat"; there's a winner and a loser. "Hacking" a system can just as easily be a win-win. It just requires a certain amount of "ballsiness" in putting yourself out there to try to change something that already exists, and a certain amount of opportunism in recognizing when things can be done differently without violating rules/personal ethics/the law.
• dstein 16y ago
  Yeah, I hope they don't really put a lot of emphasis on it. I submitted my application about an hour before the deadline and couldn't really think of anything at the time. But later I thought of a bunch of better things I could've put down.