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My best friend has been a professional locksmith since he was 16. One interesting thing he told me is that he gets worse tips for picking locks too quickly. It

My best friend has been a professional locksmith since he was 16. One interesting thing he told me is that he gets worse tips for picking locks too quickly. It creates a perception of lower value if he picks a lock in a few seconds instead of a few minutes.

allenu 6y ago
This makes so much sense and is similar to how software like TurboTax inserts unnecessary progress bars to make you think they're working hard to compute your taxes. Like your example, the user perception was that what it was doing must've been easy if it was able to perform it so quickly.
- thisisnico 6y ago
  They could have just wrote horribly inefficient software like the rest of us.
  - fxtentacle 6y ago
    They do, and their inefficiency is rendering that highly complex progress bar. How about drawing it pixel by pixel in Java without acceleration APIs and then embedding that via JNI. I'd wager you could get 10 seconds of CPU time and 500 MB of RAM use out of every progress bar ...
    - Alupis 6y ago
      Sounds like an example of real-world Speed-Up Loops[1] [1] https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Speedup-Loop https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Speedup-Loop
- reitzensteinm 6y ago
  Reminds me of the classic: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/It_Must_Be_Broken https://thedailywtf.com/articles/It_Must_Be_Broken
dillonmckay 6y ago
Showmanship is underrated.
birdyrooster 6y ago
And as an exception to that rule: I was forced to hire a locksmith because I couldn't pick the spool pins in my apartment door lock. I asked him if he would be able to do it quickly and he did it in like 30 seconds. I gave him a good tip.
- Chirael 6y ago
  I didn't know tipping was a thing with locksmiths. I hope I haven't been inadvertently rude by only paying what they were asking. Haven't heard of this before. Some locksmiths really don't like locksport folks. I think there are multiple reasons but the most basic might be that they think it will result in fewer calls. I have some very basic picking skills and for me, anyway, it's actually given me tremendous respect for the locksmith trade and made me more likely to call them when warranted, because I understand the wider range of things they can do and the skill it takes to do them successfully.
  - jfkebwjsbx 6y ago
    For someone with no clue about that world, may you give some examples?
    - Chirael 6y ago
      Like all those old furniture or door locks that I just assumed were lost causes, many locksmiths can actually make keys for them. Not usually a serious need for it but if you were selling an old piece of furniture you might do it. In my case we have a bedroom closet we'd like to lock some stuff away in when we go away and have someone come in to feed the animals. The ability to make a key for locks which have no key is another, even if those locks don't have removable cores (I'm thinking of mostly padlocks here). That's a really cool thing called impressioning, where the mechanics of the lock (pins pressed down into the keyway by springs) are actually used against it to progressively turn a key blank into a working key. Master keying is another great example (when multiple, different keys work in a lock and you can have one key that works in multiple locks, such as a small apartment building). Also a lot of ancillary things around the lock but not the lock itself, for example installing deep screws or replacement anti-kick hinges (door devil or door armor). In theory those are DIY things but in practice you can spend a lot of time trying to get alignment right (especially with a deadbolt going smoothing in/out), but it's something a locksmith does all the time.

allenu 6y ago

This makes so much sense and is similar to how software like TurboTax inserts unnecessary progress bars to make you think they're working hard to compute your taxes. Like your example, the user perception was that what it was doing must've been easy if it was able to perform it so quickly.

thisisnico 6y ago
They could have just wrote horribly inefficient software like the rest of us.
- fxtentacle 6y ago
  They do, and their inefficiency is rendering that highly complex progress bar. How about drawing it pixel by pixel in Java without acceleration APIs and then embedding that via JNI. I'd wager you could get 10 seconds of CPU time and 500 MB of RAM use out of every progress bar ...
  - Alupis 6y ago
    Sounds like an example of real-world Speed-Up Loops[1] [1] https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Speedup-Loop https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Speedup-Loop
reitzensteinm 6y ago
Reminds me of the classic: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/It_Must_Be_Broken https://thedailywtf.com/articles/It_Must_Be_Broken

dillonmckay 6y ago

Showmanship is underrated.

birdyrooster 6y ago

And as an exception to that rule: I was forced to hire a locksmith because I couldn't pick the spool pins in my apartment door lock. I asked him if he would be able to do it quickly and he did it in like 30 seconds. I gave him a good tip.

Chirael 6y ago
I didn't know tipping was a thing with locksmiths. I hope I haven't been inadvertently rude by only paying what they were asking. Haven't heard of this before. Some locksmiths really don't like locksport folks. I think there are multiple reasons but the most basic might be that they think it will result in fewer calls. I have some very basic picking skills and for me, anyway, it's actually given me tremendous respect for the locksmith trade and made me more likely to call them when warranted, because I understand the wider range of things they can do and the skill it takes to do them successfully.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y ago
  For someone with no clue about that world, may you give some examples?
  - Chirael 6y ago
    Like all those old furniture or door locks that I just assumed were lost causes, many locksmiths can actually make keys for them. Not usually a serious need for it but if you were selling an old piece of furniture you might do it. In my case we have a bedroom closet we'd like to lock some stuff away in when we go away and have someone come in to feed the animals. The ability to make a key for locks which have no key is another, even if those locks don't have removable cores (I'm thinking of mostly padlocks here). That's a really cool thing called impressioning, where the mechanics of the lock (pins pressed down into the keyway by springs) are actually used against it to progressively turn a key blank into a working key. Master keying is another great example (when multiple, different keys work in a lock and you can have one key that works in multiple locks, such as a small apartment building). Also a lot of ancillary things around the lock but not the lock itself, for example installing deep screws or replacement anti-kick hinges (door devil or door armor). In theory those are DIY things but in practice you can spend a lot of time trying to get alignment right (especially with a deadbolt going smoothing in/out), but it's something a locksmith does all the time.