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Things you're allowed to do (2020)
- IshKebab 4y agoThis list would be a lot better if it didn't mix the "huh, I hadn't thought of doing that" things like hiring a researcher with dozens of "yeah obviously you can do that" things like taping over annoying LEDs. Lists aren't better just because they're long.
- kevmo314 4y ago> Treat fines like payments E.g. park illegally and let yourself think of the (expected value of the) fine as a parking fee I love this one. Back in Chicago, I realized the rate I was getting parking tickets at was about the same as the rate at which I would otherwise pay for street parking. I also learned that if you pay the meter, LAZ Parking takes a huge cut, whereas parking fines go directly to the city so I started incurring parking tickets instead. Also I learned that Chicago doesn't do anything until your third ticket, so if you're going to leave the city, you can park for free for your last couple of weeks. I guess that one is a little more unethical.
- SoftTalker 4y agoAs long as you don't park in a tow zone. Chicago is/was notorious for predatory towing, and it will cost you hundreds of dollars and hours of your time to get your car back.
- a_e_k 4y agoGreat. Now I've got Steve Goodman's "Lincoln Park Pirates" stuck in my head again. The streetlamps are on in Chicago tonight And lovers are gazing at stars The stores are all closing And Daley is dosing And the fatman's counting the cars And there's more cars than places to put 'em, he said But I've got room for them all ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3q7o8Yjrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3q7o8Yjrg
- jl6 4y agoUhm, just remember that there's usually a reason why it's illegal to park in some places, e.g. if it blocks an emergency access route.
- ryukafalz 4y agoOr blocking a curb cut. This is endemic in my city, and can at times make intersections basically impassable in a wheelchair.
- kqr 4y agoIf you ever feel like parking outside of designated spaces, this is the test you should use. Walk around your car and ask yourself, "can a person in a wheelchair go from this side of my car to the other without being too inconvenienced?" Be particularly attentive to rough ground (cobblestone), curbs, puddles, lamp-posts or other obstacles. If your parking passes that test, it generally also accommodates the blind, bicyclists, children, etc. It's not hard to find spaces that pass the test -- which is also why it upsets me so when people neglect to.
- scythe 4y agoBut be aware of the garage door that doesn't look like a garage door. Once in SF I left my car for about 20 minutes in Haight-Ashbury on a curb that didn't seem to have any particular reason to be yellow. I returned to find that what had seemed on first inspection to be a wall was in fact a very subtle gate that slid sideways, and a few people standing around were angry with me. (When I returned to the spot weeks later, there was a new sign.)
- kevmo314 4y agoI didn't park in illegal spaces, I just refused to pay the meter. So, no high horsing needed. :)
- demopathos 4y agoI don't think there was any high horsing that took place or was implied. I recommend you don't leave comments such as that one you just left since it comes across as rude.
- bfgoodrich 4y agoIt is always unethical to decide that punitive fines are okay because you can afford them. It is a profound sense of personal entitlement.
- nuclearnice1 4y agoSpeaking of ethics, what’s the equilibrium here? Does it pass a Kantian categorical imperative? I think if everyone did this, the rate each person was taxed at would fall below the current rough meter equivalent amount and the city (and LAZ Parking) would gather less revenue. Up to you if you consider that positive or negative.
- bl0b 4y agoIt seems to me that if everyone did this (didn't pay the meter and just eat the cost of the tickets from time to time), the city would eventually realize it and would just ramp up enforcement and make bank for a while until people started paying the meters again. So LAZ Parking would end up getting their cut again and the city would be making no less than they are now. As a side note, I've always thought that the categorical imperative is as good of a rule to follow as any. But sometimes the 'if literally everyone behaved this way' thought experiment can get pretty silly, not to mention impossible to actually determine what would happen in such a case.
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- paganel 4y agoNot the OP, but there are some of us (I mean, I suppose I'm not the only one) who see paid street parking as unethical per se.
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- matkoniecz 4y ago> who see paid street parking as unethical per se. why?
- mikojan 4y agoIf the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoWhich is why punitive fines ought to scale with income and/or wealth. Finland is famous for this; millionaires have incurred speeding fines in the six figures: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland...
- ByteJockey 4y ago> Which is why punitive fines ought to scale with income and/or wealth That really seems like it depends on what the damage a particular action causes. Property destruction, for example, probably shouldn't scale. If I, accidentally, destroy your shoes, I need to buy you a new pair of shoes (and maybe a bit extra for your inconvenience). The goal is to make the victim whole again. For things with the potential for loss of life, the goal is primarily deterrence, I think that's where things make more sense to start scaling.
- cgriswald 4y agoThat depends on what the cost is to operate legally. In the case of parking, you might find that eating the fines is less expensive than paying for parking; or that they are roughly equal, but the fines are more convenient or have other positive externalities that benefit you.
- cgriswald 4y agoThe problem with this one is you need to be sure wherever you park, you aren't going to get towed. Once I learned my school wouldn't tow, I parked in the staff lots fairly frequently. The ticket * citation rate was low enough that it only cost a little more than student parking; but there was a lot more of it so it was always easy to park (and closer to my destination). (And, at the time, my school had over-sold student parking, was renovating a major student lot, and had rented out another major lot to nearby businesses.)
- Mixtape 4y agoOld thread from 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513713
- nonrandomstring 4y agoAnd please keep reposting it, because every time I read this I see something I missed before and think "yeah cool, I might try that". Also the suggestions in the comments are great, maybe we should make it a regular feature and collect "best of things you're allowed to do".
- SoftTalker 4y ago> If you’re hiring a grad student Be careful with this one. If the student is here on a visa, they are not allowed to have outside employment. Many do have "under the table" income of course, because graduate stipends are poverty-level at most schools, but it could get them in trouble.
- andai 4y ago>Note that you can replace “hire” or “buy” with “barter for” or “find a DIY guide to” nearly everywhere below. E.g. you can clean the bathroom in exchange for your housemate doing a couple hours research for you. I've been wondering about this. A quick Google reveals that barter is indeed taxable. This specific example might be silly, but would it be taxed according to the market rate for toilet cleaning services?
- have_faith 4y agoIf I only barter how do I make money to pay taxes?
- hn_version_0023 4y agoDoesn’t matter— none of us are allowed to opt-out of the system.
- skykooler 4y agoPay taxes in goats or whatever?
- passivate 4y agoHmm, are you on the hook if they don't disclose this?
- codingdave 4y agoOf verifying that your employee can legally work? Yes, I think so - I'm not in HR, but is that not the specific reason they always take 1 or 2 forms of ID and fill out paperwork when starting a new job? One form to prove your identity, and the other to prove you can legally work? (Or a passport for both)
- jancsika 4y agoYou can also email most of the living technologists who are discussed regularly on this list. (At least the ones that aren't built out of an enormous PR team.) They typically write back thoughtful responses. Not giving any examples so they don't get 1000x low effort cryptocurrency pitches.
- dubswithus 4y agoAlso not giving any examples because they often give low-effort negative responses (i.e. judge 10,000 startups through the lens of the one crypto they know about).
- jancsika 4y agoThere aren't 10,000 living technologists who are discussed regularly on HN. There are perhaps a few dozen. And I'll continue to not give any examples since I'm apparently already responding to an unprompted low-key pitch about a 1 in a 10,000 cryptocurrency opportunity. Edit: oops, I misunderstood your low-key pitch. It's even more fascinating-- these technologists could be missing out on anywhere from 0 to 9,999 new crypto opportunities that innovate well beyond the single one you think everyone already knows about. Still, I think I'll pass.
- dubswithus 4y ago
- psyc 4y agoThey could judge through the lens of 500 crypto projects and the response would be the same. If I know a company sells via multi-level marketing, do I really need to wait around to hear what the product is? Really?
- dubswithus 4y agoBut they haven't. So they can't. That's the whole point of my comment. Being uninformed is still being uninformed.
- photochemsyn 4y agoYou're also allowed to write erotic fairytale fan fiction and publish it on the internet. Just because you're allowed to do something, and by 'allowed' I assume it means, not breaking the laws written down by your local, state, and national legislative bodies, doesn't mean you should do that thing. (And, conversely, there also may be things you aren't technically allowed to do that might sometimes be a good idea to do, although any such actions should be contemplated judiciously).
- dymk 4y agoAre you saying one shouldn't write erotic fairytale fan fiction and publish it on the internet? If so, why?
- leephillips 4y agoBecause someone might accidentally read it. Unacceptable risk.
- cperciva 4y agoNot the GP, but if you're into writing erotic fanfic I'd say it's polite to avoid subject matter which might result in children being accidentally exposed to it. IIRC this was Rowling's basis for saying "Harry Potter fanfic is fine as long as it's not erotic" -- too many kids searching online for everything Harry Potter.
- mgdlbp 4y agoBecomes muddy when you account for the 'children' who write some of the erotic fanfic....
- yoyohello13 4y agoBased on my high school experience. The vast majority of erotic fantasy fanfic is written by ~13 year olds.
- avindroth 4y agoYou are replying to the title of the post, rather than the content. Most things on this list are valid and useful. Also the attack on the strawman is very elementary as well.
- nanomonkey 4y ago> Live off your savings while trying something new Warning about this, I've been doing this for the last five years, and it's made re-entering the job market difficult. I've spent the time working on Open Source software and doing what I love, but it seems to raise a lot of red flags to potential employers. So document all of your crazy adventures so that you have something to point to. Or start your own thing along the way.
- em-bee 4y agowhen i do that, i list "freelancer" as employment, and i mention all the projects that i have worked on during that time.
- k__ 4y agoAfter I did this, I didn't even want to reenter the job market.
- anonporridge 4y agoThis is the real danger. Not that employers wouldn't want to hire you, but that you've tasted too much freedom and your brain will never put up with the bullshit that is modern corporate employment ever again.
- kilroy123 4y agoToo real, after 2 1/2 years. :-/
- vaylian 4y agoI really think that CVs (i.e. chronological listings of your career steps) should not be required for hiring. It is undignifying that we have to lay bare where life has taken us, just so that we can get a job. Instead, people should be allowed to list experiences that are relevant to the position. And then it is also fine to say, that one has worked for X years on something. But anything that is not related to the job should not be necessary to share.
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- hathawsh 4y ago> Seriously, just put WD-40 on that squeaky hinge already Tip: WD-40 is for cleaning rust. It's not a very good lubricant. For squeaky hinges, or many kinds of metal-to-metal contact, you want 3-In-One oil, which is a real lubricant that's in most hardware stores.
- IgorPartola 4y agoWD-40 has so many old wives tales about it who knows what it is really for. Off the top of my head: lubrication, water displacement, loosening stuck bolts/penetrating oil, oil for sharpening things, solvent, cleaning products, assembly lube.
- Rebelgecko 4y agoThere's also some horrifying home medical "remedies" involving WD-40
- justinpombrio 4y agoIt also helps improve whiteboard surfaces! You can turn dirt-cheap white "showerboard" into a mediocre whiteboard by spraying it with WD-40.
- Lammy 4y agoWater Displacement 40
- skykooler 4y agoWD-40 works great as a temporary lubricant. This makes it good for stuff like loosening bolts, and means that it will stop the hinge from squeaking - but after a while it will evaporate and the hinge will squeak again. This is why you want to replace it with a proper oil for anything permanent.
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- elliottkember 4y ago> Write on a post-it note affixed to a greeting card rather than on the greeting card itself, so the recipient can throw away the post-it and reuse your card You are allowed to do this, but people will think it’s strange. If you don’t want to spend $7.99 on a greeting card (understandable) it’s better to make your own card and write a really thoughtful message. Draw something, if you can, even badly. Those are the cards that people keep.
- em-bee 4y agowhen i get a card, i care more about the personal note than the card. so actually, i'd keep the post-it and reuse the card. my grandma used to send postcards without a photo, where all space except the address field was used up with her message.
- leephillips 4y agoThat used to be what we called postcards. The ones with the photos were called picture post cards. The postage for a postcard was cheaper than the postage for a sealed envelope. [Notes from olden times....]
- krallja 4y agoMore ideas: Run for office Start a SuperPAC Rent powerful tools Install three-phase power to your homelab Rent an office Create a mysterious alter ego Write a book. (Fiction, even.) Hire a voice actor / composer / musician / painter / ... (related to several ideas on OP’s list) File a patent Build a musical instrument… radio transmitter… boat… car… plane… helicopter… rocket…
- skykooler 4y agoSomething I wonder about the last one - if you're a US citizen and you build a rocket, you can't hire anyone who isn't to work on it due to ITAR. If you're not a US citizen, can you legally build a rocket yourself in the US?
- orzig 4y agoI don't know details, but I knew someone who built rockets as a hobby. I think there are various levels of certification/notification required at different power levels (ie max altitudes), but it's definitely possible
- starwind 4y ago> Run for office Many counties and cities also have boards that normal citizens can join. It's usually not too hard to get on it if you can make a good case like "I live in the community, this is important to me, I have experience in this area." Good thing to do if you don't want to get as involved as running for office. You also might meet some important people in local government
- throwaway_1928 4y ago> File a patent Your employer will claim this as his own.
- dahart 4y agoIs there a good story there? The employer may be right to, if you develop it on the company dime or it’s related to your work, right? If you do it on your own time with your own resources, and your employer doesn’t agree to leave you alone, then take some of the other advice in the post and hire a lawyer. Speaking from experience, having a legal agreement signed by my employer that my own developments belong to me and aren’t competing was worth every penny just for peace of mind.
- UIUC_06 4y agoChat with a homeless person. No social worker talk. Don't ask them anything about how they got there, how their life is, what they need, etc. etc. Just treat them like a normal person: weather, sports, local traffic, etc.
- HanaShiratori 4y agoI think 99.9999% (rough estimate) of people treat a homeless person like a "normal person" by simply ignoring them. Unless there is a reason why one should start a conversation with another person, the majority of people just don't start any kind of interaction at all. And changing your behavior just because the person is homeless breaks the rule to treat them normally.
- retrac 4y agoI'm not sure. If someone in a nice suit came up to me and asked me for food because they're dizzy and haven't eaten, I'd be both perplexed but I'd probably actually take them and their problem seriously and try to help them. Call an ambulance or if it's just mild hypoglycemia buy them some candy because they forgot their wallet or whatever. I'm pretty sure I don't treat the homeless the same way, though maybe I should.
- HanaShiratori 4y agoWell at least where I live you see people in nice clothes (also suits) every weekend drunk and dizzy. And no one gives a crap about those guys sobering up in some corner.
- retrac 4y agoPolice mostly take care of that here, for better/worse. Drunk tank or hospital.
- redisman 4y agoI’ve met some well dressed druggies in the PNW and they’re not any more fun to talk to. One guy I remember had some big exit and then decided to just do drugs constantly and “adventures”. He was high as fuck and couldn’t hold on to one coherent thought
- abetusk 4y agoThis is really great. I especially like the idea of online tutoring (for languages and other stuff) which looks to be a nice cheap option [0]. One piece of advice that I think is actually quite bad, or at least I've had extremely bad experiences with, is asking people for something. I've often cold-emailed artists, programmers and other hobbyists asking them to make their work libre/free (artists CC-BY/CC-BY-SA/CC0, programmers GPL, hobbyists some type of OSH or CERN license) and I don't think I've ever gotten a positive response. The only exception is when I haven't read the documentation in depth and the project is already libre/free. Most times, asking artists or others to put their work under a libre/free license, even if it's decades old, is met with outright hostility. I usually try to couch the "ask" in passive language and signal understanding if they don't want to but, from my limited experience, this only seems to make people angrier. I'm sure there are better ways that I could ask and I'm sure I'm framing it in some way that triggers anger but I also don't think there's an actual good way to ask that from someone to try and get them to put their work under a libre/free license. Talking to people in person is another matter and that I've had good success with, but asking online, through email or otherwise, often ends in them ridiculing me and calling me names. [0] https://www.italki.com/ https://www.italki.com/
- leephillips 4y agoAsking for something is not the same as asking for free stuff. It’s especially not the same as asking someone who is trying to make a living creating things to just start giving them away. It’s not surprising to me that this kind of suggestion is met with hostility.
- abetusk 4y agoI have enough of a model of people to understand why there's pushback but at the same time the leap from "asking for something" to "asking something for everyone" doesn't seem like a big one. I also find it confusing how people can use clips from movies, songs etc. not in the public domain or use public domain works outright but not see how contributing to the commons benefits society. I appreciate your comment but my feeling is that a closer understanding is that the overton window is such that fair use, public domain and old work enriching the commons are so taken for granted that people have forgotten how important they are.
- hooande 4y agoHire experts. You are definitely allowed to do this, for everything. Even your day job. If you're starting a project or doing something complicated for the first time (ie, buying a house), pay someone to walk you through the basics and answer a list of questions. It's often cheaper than you think. The hardest part is finding experts who are willing to do one off work for a few hundred or thousand dollars.
- throwaway_1928 4y ago"A star programmer fired for outsourcing his own job has learned a harsh lesson: exploitation is a job for employers, not staff" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/17/sacked-model-modern-employee-outsourcing https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/17/sacked...
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- more_corn 4y agoFunny thing about that. If you want to do it you are allowed. You only get in trouble if you lie about it. Quit your W2, form LLC, go back to employer. “Hey boss, I started a new company, me and my team will do just what I did before but now we can scale up and down as needed.” My business does this. We’ve got ten people and a fantastic amount of work. I was worried that the downturn would hurt us but we have more inbound work now than we did a month ago and we’re adding two new people next week.
- throwaway_1928 4y agoBrilliant.
- version_five 4y ago> The hardest part is finding experts who are willing to do one off work for a few hundred or thousand dollars. In my limited experience, I find that there are tons of people willing to "help" me with tasks I don't care about, whereas it's very hard to find people who can actually provide high value assistance. For example, setting up my company, I called an accounting firm. The guy they put me in touch with had no real input re the specific tax and situational questions I had, and wanted to sell me bookkeeping software (while telling me to call revenue Canada - our IRS - and ask them about my questions.). That seems to be the norm. Same is true with financial advice, legal advice, travel agents, all sorts of things. Understandably, people have built businesses that "productized" something, and are focused on selling that, because of the low marginal cost. It makes it very hard to actually get expert advice
- troon-lover 4y ago
- d_burfoot 4y ago> Ask people out on dates You’re actually very much not allowed to do this in many professional situations. Unfortunately the line between when it’s okay and not okay is illegible to many people.
- notjustanymike 4y agoTell me about it, I've been married to my product manager for 7 years now.
- schwartzworld 4y agoIt's hard to think of many situations when it would be completely unacceptable to ask someone once as long as you respect their answer. The exceptions are situations with a skewed power dynamic, i.e. a boss hitting on an underling.
- orzig 4y agoWhat's tricky about this stuff is that it's in between a "thing you're allowed to do" and "completely unacceptable". I'd suspect it's close to to former than the latter, but even with best efforts it's not zero risk, mostly through the slow accumulation of awkwardness and misinterpreted communication on both sides. Source: Literally none, I got lucky in college
- jaqalopes 4y agoI'll upvote this every time it's posted. Not a perfect list by any means, but people (read: me) can benefit a lot from being reminded of this stuff from time to time.
- starwind 4y ago> Surgery for appearance or comfort I'm kind of a sweaty guy so I got miradry in my arm pits. They lasered out something like 80% of my sweat glands under my arms and it makes a big difference. I don't sit somewhere feeling absolutely disgusting worried that I stink. You can do it for your hands too if you have sweaty palms. Cost me like $2000. I'm going to start some hair treatments here soon because it's getting thinner than I like up top
- maroonblazer 4y agoAs a teenager, my underarms would sweat profusely, leaving stains on my shirt that were impossible to ignore. My mother took me to a dermatologist who prescribed a medication I applied like deodorant and completely removed my ability to perspire under my arms. But my body still needs to cool itself so I now sweat profusely on my chest, back, forehead, and palms. Do you find that your perspiration just found a different outlet?
- starwind 4y agoNot that I've noticed
- digisign 4y agoInteresting. Did that happen to kill the stinky bacteria living in the sweat glands as well? Or is the improvement in smell merely a function of the lowered sweat production?
- phkahler 4y agoBuild your own airplane. This is a fine tradition that is more common than most people realize. Also possible in many other countries besides the US. Your local EAA chapter should have many resources to help you along the way.
- 65 4y agoMore accurate title: Things you're allowed to do if you're wealthy and highly educated.
- enriquto 4y agoBasically, a rich person's guide to a happier life. Everything here is obvious but not of much use if you don't have the money to do all this stuff
- ErikAugust 4y agoYou don’t have to be rich to not drink, for example.
- swat535 4y agoVery few of these items apply to poor people to be honest; they have little or no negotiating power either when it comes to things like "not paying bills", asking for a "raise", etc..
- vba616 4y agoI agree that the list has a tone and probably originated in a desire of letting people who are making six figures for the first time know what they can do, but more than a few items are potentially relevant to someone making half of a bay area salary.
- more_corn 4y agoAnd the relative effect on your disposable income is wildly higher.
- orzig 4y agoThere's a whole 'interpersonal' section that has little to do with money. Even under 'Make the most of your resources' there are ideas like "Tape over annoying LED lights". It's worth reading deeper.
- vba616 4y ago>all this stuff If you aren't rich, you're allowed to do some of the stuff that rich people do, without doing all of it. In my opinion, that's the entire reason for preferring a capitalist society where money determines what you get. It means there is some limited freedom from "social station" or class.
- zarzavat 4y agoDoes anyone know how you can hire a mathematician for a consultation? e.g. a PhD student in a certain area? Sometimes I’m down a rabbit hole and I realize that the level of mathematics is becoming outside of my (undergrad-level) comfort zone and I often think it would be helpful to sit down with a mathematician for an hour and have a chat with someone expert in X (where X could be combinatorics, probability, statistics, linear algebra, etc...)
- burrows 4y agoSend them an email.
- dafelst 4y agoIt is generally not super difficult - most professors at universities have Masters and PhD level grad students, and more often than not, faculty are listed on the university websites. Find a local university, look up their math (or whatever) department, and a simple email to one or more professors explaining what you want to do and that you're willing to pay will more than likely give you some leads if nothing else. Hell, you might even find that the professor's time is within your budget depending on the institution and their level of seniority.
- etothepii 4y agoOh my god this, I once asked my old director of studies if he could put me in touch with the person who would be teaching a certain course I had not done very well in at University so I could hire them for tuition. He offered to do it himself and when he told me his rate it was so low I was almost embarrassed.
- mam2 4y ago
- davidguetta 4y agoThis is condescendently or naively NICE. Basically "you can deviate nicely from your nerd stereotype but not too much" Fuck that. Go to raves and take drugs for a while for some real change
- angarg12 4y agoHere is mine: you can pay local tailors to alter or make garments to measure. Terminology is confusing, but usually made to measure is when a garment (jacket, coat, shirt, trousers) is made to your specifications on demand. Services vary, but usually the size will be adjusted to your measurements, and you can choose fabrics and construction details. Many local tailors will do this, and the price isn't much higher than an off the rack piece. If you are buying from a high street brand off the rack you are most certainly getting ripped. Many brands use poor fabrics, choice is limited, and fit isn't great. A made to measure piece will be cheaper, can use better fabrics, will definitely fit better, and gives you plenty of choice and customization. It's almost like a cheat code for nice clothes!! For example a commissioned a wool jacket in a Loro Piana fabric from a local tailor. I was able to add details such as contrast colour stitching in button holes, custom lining and my monogram on the interior. The cost was about 20% (that is, 80% off) from a comparable jacket from Loro Piana, and using the exact same fabric, which a much better fit to boot. Likewise you can pay tailors to alter garments. Alterations isn't magic but sometimes you can buy second hand or vintage and get a piece that suits you much better. A caveat here is that in this case you get what you pay for and construction might not always be great. I had tailors that did great jobs, others that did lousy jobs, and others that do not so great jobs, but the price is so cheap that I put with them.
- dxhdr 4y ago> The cost was about 20% (that is, 80% off) from a comparable jacket from Loro Piana, and using the exact same fabric, which a much better fit to boot. The first jacket I checked on the Loro Piana website cost $25k... wow.
- angarg12 4y agoI got mine for 500 pounds. A comparable jacket should go for between 2k and 3k.
- yencabulator 4y ago> and the price isn't much higher than an off the rack piece and then later > I got mine for 500 pounds. Yeah, that may hold for "fashion" clothing, but the way you write sounds like that's a generalized statement. I don't own a single piece of clothing worth $200, and I don't want one either. (I'll make an exception for an all-weather hiking jacket in the future, but even there I'd prefer buying used.) On the other hand, a local dry cleaners used to patch my pants for $6. That was useful.
- UIUC_06 4y agoBargain on price. Not in a "regular" retail store, but in any case where a single person has the authority to adjust the price: any kind of street market, for instance. True story: I was in England and with some friends who live there, and we were going to an "artist open studios" day. I mentioned that back in the States, I routinely offered less money to the artist than they were asking. Not a whole lot less, just 10-20%. The "asking price" for a piece of one-off art is completely arbitrary anyway and the artist is almost always happy to bargain. My British friend looked horrified. I don't know if everyone there would consider it rude, or just her.
- vba616 4y agoPeople I've known who do sewing and needlework and stuff seem to have perennial stories about clueless people asking if they can buy or commission a piece without the vaguest concept of how much time and effort went into the one on display. There is so much marketing around "hand crafted" products that people forget it's all either fake/weasel words or done in very low wage places.
- GuB-42 4y ago> Not in a "regular" retail store Even in "regular" retail stores. I have successfully bargained in big box stores, it doesn't always work of course, but even these stores are usually managed by humans and salesmen, especially those with experience are often allowed some margin.
- leodriesch 4y agoWorked for me once when buying an iPhone at a local electronics store using the price on Amazon as leverage.
- johnchristopher 4y agoIs anyone able to do that ? Looks like a lot of planing and special circumstances and friends with specific needs to make it work. - Live in multiple places with multiple people - Arrange your own timeshare system with friends - E.g. a group of nine friends can rent three three-bedroom apartments in three cities