8 ms·

How To Crash A Party

180 points by bretthardin 15y ago

geuis 15y ago
I may not ever have the gumption to actually do something like this, but I'll say its admirable. At a base level, he's really mastered social engineering.
- tomjen3 15y ago
  That is true. But social engineering is mostly about not caring about the consequences and looking exactly like you belong there.
  - DrJ 15y ago
    Don't forget that you have to look the part as well. If you are dressed correctly, you can crash a party at the White House. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-25/politics/state.dinner.crashers_1_secret-service-white-house-dinner?_s=PM:POLITICS http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-25/politics/state.dinner.cra... also: Lemon: Carol, what are you doing here? How did you get past security? Carol: You walk briskly in a pilot's uniform, you can go pretty much anywhere. I've been upstairs at the White House while the Obamas were sleeping. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30-rock/i-do-do-1.php?page=9 http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30-rock/i-do-do-1....
ChuckMcM 15y ago
I assume the author realizes that the term 'conman' is short for 'Confidence Man' which is a very, very, old gambit. One conman I knew told me that being a conman was the second oldest profession, because as soon as there were hookers there were guys who worked to convince the hookers that they didn't need to pay. Of course these days we call them con-artists since the sex of the person is irrelevant. The motivation for being a con artist is the adrenaline thrill of knowing at any moment you can be 'caught out.' Sure that makes you feel alive, but when you are 'caught' you may not have broken any laws but you have really pissed someone off. When you shoplift from a store they call the cops to charge you, when you make someone feel stupid for having believed you, they call their friends to come over and beat the shit out of you.
- wyclif 15y ago
  The conman hustle is not "the second oldest profession." This is the second-oldest profession: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    I think it pretty obvious ChuckMcM was telling a humorous anecdote to support a point, rather than objectively evaluating the ages of various professions.
  - joejohnson 15y ago
    Where does it say second-oldest?
- nandemo 15y ago
  Huh? I didn't see any mention of "conman". I hope you haven'tjust jumped from "walk with confidence" to "confidence man" to "conman".
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    Let's say he described this new fun activity of using pipes to route water around a building, and then using valves so that you could turn it on and off, and have it pop out of one pipe, get caught in a big bowl, and then go swirling down another pipe. You would immediately recognize that he was talking about something the profession called 'plumbing' does every day. And while there are amateur plumbers, there are also many many professional ones. Pretending you are something you are not, in order to gain the confidence of someone so that they will treat you in a way you would like to be treated, is a game of confidence. And some people do this to convince someone else to go out with them on a date, some do it for the 'lulz', and some do it to make a living, Our intrepid author has 'tricked' people into thinking he belongs at a swank party and has 'robbed' the party of drinks and snacks. He talks about the thrill of getting away with it. And it is a huge thrill. But like plumbing the spectrum of 'con artist' goes from very small (taking candy from babies) to very large (taking millions from corporations). He tells himself its not really stealing (and the rationalizations are fine, there probably is more waste in the system than he is consuming) but he is making people believe something that is false. My word of caution is that people who are very successful are often quite ruthlessly competitive, and finding out that they had been tricked into believing something that wasn't true, often gets translated into 'losing out'. That can trigger their competitive streak, and that can get your knees broken. Same is true for para-gliding or free-style rock climbing. Not good or bad, just is.
kurtvarner 15y ago
This guy is definitely a hustler... but something doesn't sit right with me about crashing events for charity. Every drink or meal he consumes is money taken directly out of the charity's pocket. He tries to justify his unethical actions by saying that crashing these events will make him much more likely to become successful (rich), and therefore he'll be able to buy lots of charity tickets in the future. Sorry dude, crashing parties and ripping off charities is not going to make you successful.
- mwhite 15y ago
  I hardly see how he's hurting the charity by doing this. It's not as if he's depriving the charities of money because he would have paid the large admission fees if he wasn't doing this; he just wouldn't go. And his presence there is not causing the charity to spend any more money by hiring more staff. There is the real cost of the food and drink he consumes, but depending on how the event is catered, if there is food left over, then he's not effecting anything, and if there isn't food left over, he's taking money out of the other attendees' pockets, not the charity's. In fact, maybe he contributed to an enjoyable experience for the other attendees, which will make them more likely to support that charity in the future. Utilitarianism FTW!
  - jules 15y ago
    This is the same fallacy that some people use about planes: "Traveling by plane doesn't result in more fossil fuels burnt because the plane would have flown anyway". The way these things work is that after such an event the organizers assess whether there was enough food, and based on this they order food for the next event.
    - mwhite 15y ago
      I guess you're right, it's a flawed argument. In fact, considering that I use exactly your argument to support/demand not eating meat, I guess it shows that I might just be going for a post hoc rationalization of actions that emotionally appeal to me in this case. But just to play devil's advocate, might the charity decide that they want to take in a certain amount of money from an event and set ticket prices accordingly, thus passing the cost on to attendees? (The implication being that it's less ethically dubious to leech off of rich people than charities.)
edw519 15y ago
So you were dishonest and bragged about it in a blog post with your name and picture. Some of the very people you tricked may even be reading it now that it made the front page of Hacker News. You'd think that you would have learned something after spending so much time with so many successful people. Apparently not.
- sosuke 15y ago
  That got me right off the bat. He spends all this time crashing parties to rub elbows with who he wants to be and he didn't talk about anything he accomplished as a result, save for the rush of going where he wasn't supposed to be and the free drinks.
- geuis 15y ago
  I have to disagree, kindly of course. Since I don't know the gentleman, anything I say has to be taken with that in mind. Most of us come here to laud and admire our fellows that are tenacious and ingenious enough to invent, create, market, sell, or hack their way to success. This fellow has done no different. As he says near the beginning of the article, he knew where he wanted to be but didn't have the resources or connections to get there. So he figured out a way to achieve those goals. This is the epitome of what I love about hackers. I also don't see a problem with his talking about it publicly. His intention wasn't to spend his entire life sneaking into parties. It was to make connections with people that would let him do things he'd be unable to otherwise. Assuming that he's done that, then talking about how he got to where he is now is perfectly fine. I'll say that his style of writing does come off with a certain tone of braggadocio, but otherwise its an interesting and well written account.
  - kurtvarner 15y ago
    I don't think this party crashing has brought him significantly closer to his success goals. Not once did he give an example of a time he was able to successfully leverage a new connection to his benefit. He basically name dropped a handful of famous people that he met one time, but that's it. The only benefit I see is that he's actively stepping out of his comfort zone. This is valuable, however, it's at the cost of charity. There are better ways to go about exercising this character trait.
tobiasSoftware 15y ago
Though I might not like what he did, I admire the skill itself, and more honest applications of it. Anyone who finds the article interesting should watch "Catch Me if You Can" a movie about a criminal who uses these techniques to steal money.
- GFischer 15y ago
  The book is also really good (didn't actually watch the movie) http://www.amazon.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can/dp/0767905385 http://www.amazon.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can/dp/0767905385 I also enjoyed Kevin Mitnick's book The Art of Deception, also on "Social Engineering"/con artists. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Security/dp/076454280X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329393790&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Secu...
edkennedy 15y ago
Getting HTTP500. How to crash a webserver?
zbowling 15y ago
How to crash a blog.
s8qnze982y 15y ago
It's funny. These kind of guys think they're badasses, while in reality, to an attentive eye, they're the opposite: people with an attention seeking disorder. Aside that the attention seeking is very obvious from the formatting of the text, the interesting thing is that he did really nothing special. Naturally, credits for getting the right attitude that let him enter, but for the rest, what he's describing is not different from a socially comfortable (skilled, for the nerds) person.
- ChrisMac 15y ago
  I agree with your last sentence. The post has a vibe that I've noticed from some more socially awkward/not-totally-self-aware people, where they'll go to an event that pushes their comfort zone (usually a party or a club), talk to some strangers, get in some mild antics, then later they'll report on it like it was this totally crazy, daring adventure they had. To them it was totally out there. A more socially comfortable person may do the same kind of thing, but it feels normal to them and they don't see it as any kind of big deal or accomplishment. Actually, what this blog post really reminds me of is a breathless 'Field Report' by a clueless but eager beginner in that whole Pick Up Artist subculture. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if the guy was into that stuff.
  - GFischer 15y ago
    As a socially awkward person myself, that's what I liked from the article. Also, the author is of Indian origin, being from Uruguay myself, I'd guess we might have more class/social status awareness; most wouldn't dare crash an Elton John party. I also agree that he found out for himself some things that other subcultures had already found out, for example I think Kevin Mitnick says something about suits and the right attire in his book The Art of Deception, the Pick Up Artists probably say something of the sort, and many books and movies about scamsters also highlight it (Catch Me If You Can comes to mind).
- nitrogen 15y ago
  people with an attention seeking disorder. Not that I'm defending crashing high-security press functions with prime ministers, but when did seeking attention become a disorder? When will we stop calling the slightest deviation from an idealized median a "disorder?"
drewblaisdell 15y ago
Here it is in Google's cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CiuHx3i_sooJ:www.nevblog.com/how-to-crash-a-party/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CiuHx3i...
mhunter 15y ago
How to crash a blog. [link doesn't work]
mhunter 15y ago
How to crash a blog. [link doesn't work]
rdouble 15y ago
This article is a bit dramatic. It's really easy to crash a party. You just walk in. Unless you are causing a problem, or you really don't look like you belong there, nobody will notice. As party crashing is sort of a pointless activity, not many people actually do it. Thus, parties aren't really prepared for it, and it's pretty easy.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  I think a lot of time people do notice; they just don't care.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
apike 15y ago
Besides being entertaining, some of these tactics could also be ethically and practically useful. How many times have you been made to feel uncomfortable being somewhere you had a right to be? Maybe you really are meeting friends at an exclusive restaurant, but the host is eyeing you suspiciously as you walk in. Maybe you left your conference badge at the hotel, but didn't realize it was required for the afterparty. Maybe you were asked to speak at a meetup, but the doorperson is asking for $10 in pizza money even though you already ate. Learning how to look and act like you own the place can save you confrontation, keep things running smoothly, and lead to the same kinds of awesome as in the article - without swindling any charities.
- GFischer 15y ago
  That's a good takeaway. One of my mentors is the organizer of an invite-only meetup which I really wanted to go to, and while he did add me at the last second to the invite list, I didn't get a badge. I simply acted as if I belonged (which I did), and I got by security, into the afterparty, etc. I do believe the blog author crossed the line, but I also feel it's forgiveable/acceptable as an experiment, but not as something repeatable.
necenzurat 15y ago
you got to admit, the recording makes it like a fairy tale, i've done crashing parties (just for the free booze) and will do it in the future!
nohat 15y ago
This is written with the rhythmic style and aggressively varied typography of ad copy.
- beaker 15y ago
  Agreed, I honestly don't understand how it could be so well received on HN. Do you really need to use boldface <b>at the end of every sentence?</b> This article just seems like money-worshiping, social-climbing drivel.
evincarofautumn 15y ago
Regardless of whether or not these practices were ethical (I don’t think they were) or had a point (I don’t think they did), the article was a fun enough read. If that’s how this guy wants to get his kicks and meet new and interesting people (who seem to be interesting to him only because they have money), then that’s fine by me. But if I ever see him at an event I host, he’s getting kicked out whether he deserves to be there or not.
kjhughes 15y ago
If you found his party hacking admirable or maybe just entertaining, you'd probably like the movie, "Wedding Crashers": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchoV-6UHI8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchoV-6UHI8
adamrights 15y ago
I found his characterization of the people getting paid to check tickets -- "I'm scared of Mr. Rich person" -- a bit naive.
coridactyl 15y ago
So has anyone here crashed a conference or convention? I've wanted to but haven't for fear of someone recognizing me.
- ricardobeat 15y ago
  And why would you do that?
  - waqf 15y ago
    Presumably for the same reason that one would normally attend a conference or convention, except with the added benefit of being a few hundred dollars richer.
joejohnson 15y ago
This is the guy: http://www.nevblog.com/images/prime-minister-of-malaysia.jpg http://www.nevblog.com/images/prime-minister-of-malaysia.jpg
littledude 15y ago
i used to work in a movie theater in high school, same theory applies. you can actually walk right in without a ticket and no tricks, just confidence and a sense of entitlement. my coworkers would never stop people with the balls to do it and it happened many times. walk close behind a group of at least 2 other customers. as their tickets are being ripped just keep walking past them at a normal pace, head facing forward, and without making eye contact. they will notice you but do nothing. go ahead and try it with a legit ticket in your pocket you can show them if they do stop you.
burgerbrain 15y ago
In my experience the best events to crash are art exhibit openings. You can do it with any attire (so long as you are the attire) and it's not hard at all to fake an appreciation for whatever art they may be showing. Furthermore, the faster you drink the less people care about how you act. People at exhibit openings tend to get positively sloshed.
JonnieCache 15y ago
Come back when you've made and used your own grappling hook, dodged barbed wire using carpet samplers, hidden in a ditch for two hours and blended into a samba procession in order to save £180 to get into a music festival. NB: Not all of the above were necessarily my exploits.
freshfey 15y ago
The funny thing is, if James Bond would do something similar in a movie, everybody would fall in love with the technique. But if somebody really breaks this down for you, it's wrong and "attention-seeking". As he says in the last part of the post, this is just another tactic of being scrappy and wanting to learn from other people. Why not use it for your advantage?
- kahawe 15y ago
  > The funny thing is, if James Bond would do something similar in a movie, everybody would fall in love with the technique. Well, James Bond saves the world and doing something like sneaking into a party is probably a 2/10 on his list of skills. All this guy does is desperately seek attention, religiously look up to money and then he seeks more approval and attention about it online.
kahawe 15y ago
> HEY. Hey you. Studies show if you don't read NevBlog.com everyday, you might die Really? Excellent! Because after reading that post, I will definitely never ever read that blog again on purpose, it makes me feel like dieing. This so reeks of the same annoying "openess" and impertinence I have only come to experience from typically Indian and Pakistani hagglers on the street trying to lure you into their clothes store. Congratulations, you played the monkey for an educated business crowd and they gave you attention. How surprising, educated and intelligent people are actually friendlier and forgiving than you thought! But still you were a dancing monkey, nothing more. You really feel proud of yourself? Here is a hint: these people are getting approached by the likes of you ever single day, you really think they didn't see through your "genius" charade you came up with in 2 seconds? I think rich people can't stand anything less than people who talk to them just because they "admire" their wealth. Your demeanor and actions very clearly show... you wouldn't stop at anything just to get some money and attention. You are the last person on earth I want to see coming into money because your borderline-religious fascination with it is dangerous and worrying. > Often out of the ghettoness and scrappiness, emerges something more refined. You are not ghetto nor do you accomplish anything actually pretty cool or worthwhile through shady means... you are just cheap and greedy. And you wrote a whole blog entry full of proof for that. And all those "genius" methods of being a cheap, greedy wannabe and what do you have to show for it? You talked to a couple of people... congratulations.
LisaG 15y ago
Love this sentence: Think about it, every event likes press coverage….and I was a quote on quote…“member of the press”! Cheesy formatting, total misunderstanding of "quote unquote" - the use of quotation marks afterwards is priceless, and an attitude of having discovered and revealed some great secret which is in actuality a ploy so tired it has been in bad movies for decades. This guy is passing, right. Definitely a dancing monkey.
dragons 15y ago
Sometimes, doing things like this can get "blown way out of proportion": http://www.wtae.com/r/23653787/detail.html http://www.wtae.com/r/23653787/detail.html (The blog writer was arrested along with 2 others for breaking into Pittsburgh Steelers' stadium in 2010.)

180 points by bretthardin 15y ago

geuis 15y ago

I may not ever have the gumption to actually do something like this, but I'll say its admirable. At a base level, he's really mastered social engineering.

tomjen3 15y ago
That is true. But social engineering is mostly about not caring about the consequences and looking exactly like you belong there.
- DrJ 15y ago
  Don't forget that you have to look the part as well. If you are dressed correctly, you can crash a party at the White House. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-25/politics/state.dinner.crashers_1_secret-service-white-house-dinner?_s=PM:POLITICS http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-25/politics/state.dinner.cra... also: Lemon: Carol, what are you doing here? How did you get past security? Carol: You walk briskly in a pilot's uniform, you can go pretty much anywhere. I've been upstairs at the White House while the Obamas were sleeping. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30-rock/i-do-do-1.php?page=9 http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30-rock/i-do-do-1....

ChuckMcM 15y ago

I assume the author realizes that the term 'conman' is short for 'Confidence Man' which is a very, very, old gambit. One conman I knew told me that being a conman was the second oldest profession, because as soon as there were hookers there were guys who worked to convince the hookers that they didn't need to pay. Of course these days we call them con-artists since the sex of the person is irrelevant. The motivation for being a con artist is the adrenaline thrill of knowing at any moment you can be 'caught out.' Sure that makes you feel alive, but when you are 'caught' you may not have broken any laws but you have really pissed someone off. When you shoplift from a store they call the cops to charge you, when you make someone feel stupid for having believed you, they call their friends to come over and beat the shit out of you.

wyclif 15y ago
The conman hustle is not "the second oldest profession." This is the second-oldest profession: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  I think it pretty obvious ChuckMcM was telling a humorous anecdote to support a point, rather than objectively evaluating the ages of various professions.
- joejohnson 15y ago
  Where does it say second-oldest?
nandemo 15y ago
Huh? I didn't see any mention of "conman". I hope you haven'tjust jumped from "walk with confidence" to "confidence man" to "conman".
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  Let's say he described this new fun activity of using pipes to route water around a building, and then using valves so that you could turn it on and off, and have it pop out of one pipe, get caught in a big bowl, and then go swirling down another pipe. You would immediately recognize that he was talking about something the profession called 'plumbing' does every day. And while there are amateur plumbers, there are also many many professional ones. Pretending you are something you are not, in order to gain the confidence of someone so that they will treat you in a way you would like to be treated, is a game of confidence. And some people do this to convince someone else to go out with them on a date, some do it for the 'lulz', and some do it to make a living, Our intrepid author has 'tricked' people into thinking he belongs at a swank party and has 'robbed' the party of drinks and snacks. He talks about the thrill of getting away with it. And it is a huge thrill. But like plumbing the spectrum of 'con artist' goes from very small (taking candy from babies) to very large (taking millions from corporations). He tells himself its not really stealing (and the rationalizations are fine, there probably is more waste in the system than he is consuming) but he is making people believe something that is false. My word of caution is that people who are very successful are often quite ruthlessly competitive, and finding out that they had been tricked into believing something that wasn't true, often gets translated into 'losing out'. That can trigger their competitive streak, and that can get your knees broken. Same is true for para-gliding or free-style rock climbing. Not good or bad, just is.

kurtvarner 15y ago

This guy is definitely a hustler... but something doesn't sit right with me about crashing events for charity. Every drink or meal he consumes is money taken directly out of the charity's pocket. He tries to justify his unethical actions by saying that crashing these events will make him much more likely to become successful (rich), and therefore he'll be able to buy lots of charity tickets in the future. Sorry dude, crashing parties and ripping off charities is not going to make you successful.

mwhite 15y ago
I hardly see how he's hurting the charity by doing this. It's not as if he's depriving the charities of money because he would have paid the large admission fees if he wasn't doing this; he just wouldn't go. And his presence there is not causing the charity to spend any more money by hiring more staff. There is the real cost of the food and drink he consumes, but depending on how the event is catered, if there is food left over, then he's not effecting anything, and if there isn't food left over, he's taking money out of the other attendees' pockets, not the charity's. In fact, maybe he contributed to an enjoyable experience for the other attendees, which will make them more likely to support that charity in the future. Utilitarianism FTW!
- jules 15y ago
  This is the same fallacy that some people use about planes: "Traveling by plane doesn't result in more fossil fuels burnt because the plane would have flown anyway". The way these things work is that after such an event the organizers assess whether there was enough food, and based on this they order food for the next event.
  - mwhite 15y ago
    I guess you're right, it's a flawed argument. In fact, considering that I use exactly your argument to support/demand not eating meat, I guess it shows that I might just be going for a post hoc rationalization of actions that emotionally appeal to me in this case. But just to play devil's advocate, might the charity decide that they want to take in a certain amount of money from an event and set ticket prices accordingly, thus passing the cost on to attendees? (The implication being that it's less ethically dubious to leech off of rich people than charities.)

edw519 15y ago

So you were dishonest and bragged about it in a blog post with your name and picture. Some of the very people you tricked may even be reading it now that it made the front page of Hacker News. You'd think that you would have learned something after spending so much time with so many successful people. Apparently not.

sosuke 15y ago
That got me right off the bat. He spends all this time crashing parties to rub elbows with who he wants to be and he didn't talk about anything he accomplished as a result, save for the rush of going where he wasn't supposed to be and the free drinks.
geuis 15y ago
I have to disagree, kindly of course. Since I don't know the gentleman, anything I say has to be taken with that in mind. Most of us come here to laud and admire our fellows that are tenacious and ingenious enough to invent, create, market, sell, or hack their way to success. This fellow has done no different. As he says near the beginning of the article, he knew where he wanted to be but didn't have the resources or connections to get there. So he figured out a way to achieve those goals. This is the epitome of what I love about hackers. I also don't see a problem with his talking about it publicly. His intention wasn't to spend his entire life sneaking into parties. It was to make connections with people that would let him do things he'd be unable to otherwise. Assuming that he's done that, then talking about how he got to where he is now is perfectly fine. I'll say that his style of writing does come off with a certain tone of braggadocio, but otherwise its an interesting and well written account.
- kurtvarner 15y ago
  I don't think this party crashing has brought him significantly closer to his success goals. Not once did he give an example of a time he was able to successfully leverage a new connection to his benefit. He basically name dropped a handful of famous people that he met one time, but that's it. The only benefit I see is that he's actively stepping out of his comfort zone. This is valuable, however, it's at the cost of charity. There are better ways to go about exercising this character trait.

tobiasSoftware 15y ago

Though I might not like what he did, I admire the skill itself, and more honest applications of it. Anyone who finds the article interesting should watch "Catch Me if You Can" a movie about a criminal who uses these techniques to steal money.

GFischer 15y ago
The book is also really good (didn't actually watch the movie) http://www.amazon.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can/dp/0767905385 http://www.amazon.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can/dp/0767905385 I also enjoyed Kevin Mitnick's book The Art of Deception, also on "Social Engineering"/con artists. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Security/dp/076454280X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329393790&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Secu...

edkennedy 15y ago

Getting HTTP500. How to crash a webserver?

zbowling 15y ago

How to crash a blog.

s8qnze982y 15y ago

It's funny. These kind of guys think they're badasses, while in reality, to an attentive eye, they're the opposite: people with an attention seeking disorder. Aside that the attention seeking is very obvious from the formatting of the text, the interesting thing is that he did really nothing special. Naturally, credits for getting the right attitude that let him enter, but for the rest, what he's describing is not different from a socially comfortable (skilled, for the nerds) person.

ChrisMac 15y ago
I agree with your last sentence. The post has a vibe that I've noticed from some more socially awkward/not-totally-self-aware people, where they'll go to an event that pushes their comfort zone (usually a party or a club), talk to some strangers, get in some mild antics, then later they'll report on it like it was this totally crazy, daring adventure they had. To them it was totally out there. A more socially comfortable person may do the same kind of thing, but it feels normal to them and they don't see it as any kind of big deal or accomplishment. Actually, what this blog post really reminds me of is a breathless 'Field Report' by a clueless but eager beginner in that whole Pick Up Artist subculture. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if the guy was into that stuff.
- GFischer 15y ago
  As a socially awkward person myself, that's what I liked from the article. Also, the author is of Indian origin, being from Uruguay myself, I'd guess we might have more class/social status awareness; most wouldn't dare crash an Elton John party. I also agree that he found out for himself some things that other subcultures had already found out, for example I think Kevin Mitnick says something about suits and the right attire in his book The Art of Deception, the Pick Up Artists probably say something of the sort, and many books and movies about scamsters also highlight it (Catch Me If You Can comes to mind).
nitrogen 15y ago
people with an attention seeking disorder. Not that I'm defending crashing high-security press functions with prime ministers, but when did seeking attention become a disorder? When will we stop calling the slightest deviation from an idealized median a "disorder?"

drewblaisdell 15y ago

Here it is in Google's cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CiuHx3i_sooJ:www.nevblog.com/how-to-crash-a-party/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CiuHx3i...

mhunter 15y ago

How to crash a blog. [link doesn't work]

mhunter 15y ago

How to crash a blog. [link doesn't work]

rdouble 15y ago

This article is a bit dramatic. It's really easy to crash a party. You just walk in. Unless you are causing a problem, or you really don't look like you belong there, nobody will notice. As party crashing is sort of a pointless activity, not many people actually do it. Thus, parties aren't really prepared for it, and it's pretty easy.

pavel_lishin 15y ago
I think a lot of time people do notice; they just don't care.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

apike 15y ago

Besides being entertaining, some of these tactics could also be ethically and practically useful. How many times have you been made to feel uncomfortable being somewhere you had a right to be? Maybe you really are meeting friends at an exclusive restaurant, but the host is eyeing you suspiciously as you walk in. Maybe you left your conference badge at the hotel, but didn't realize it was required for the afterparty. Maybe you were asked to speak at a meetup, but the doorperson is asking for $10 in pizza money even though you already ate. Learning how to look and act like you own the place can save you confrontation, keep things running smoothly, and lead to the same kinds of awesome as in the article - without swindling any charities.

GFischer 15y ago
That's a good takeaway. One of my mentors is the organizer of an invite-only meetup which I really wanted to go to, and while he did add me at the last second to the invite list, I didn't get a badge. I simply acted as if I belonged (which I did), and I got by security, into the afterparty, etc. I do believe the blog author crossed the line, but I also feel it's forgiveable/acceptable as an experiment, but not as something repeatable.

necenzurat 15y ago

you got to admit, the recording makes it like a fairy tale, i've done crashing parties (just for the free booze) and will do it in the future!

nohat 15y ago

This is written with the rhythmic style and aggressively varied typography of ad copy.

beaker 15y ago
Agreed, I honestly don't understand how it could be so well received on HN. Do you really need to use boldface <b>at the end of every sentence?</b> This article just seems like money-worshiping, social-climbing drivel.

evincarofautumn 15y ago

Regardless of whether or not these practices were ethical (I don’t think they were) or had a point (I don’t think they did), the article was a fun enough read. If that’s how this guy wants to get his kicks and meet new and interesting people (who seem to be interesting to him only because they have money), then that’s fine by me. But if I ever see him at an event I host, he’s getting kicked out whether he deserves to be there or not.

kjhughes 15y ago

If you found his party hacking admirable or maybe just entertaining, you'd probably like the movie, "Wedding Crashers": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchoV-6UHI8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchoV-6UHI8

adamrights 15y ago

I found his characterization of the people getting paid to check tickets -- "I'm scared of Mr. Rich person" -- a bit naive.

coridactyl 15y ago

So has anyone here crashed a conference or convention? I've wanted to but haven't for fear of someone recognizing me.

ricardobeat 15y ago
And why would you do that?
- waqf 15y ago
  Presumably for the same reason that one would normally attend a conference or convention, except with the added benefit of being a few hundred dollars richer.

joejohnson 15y ago

This is the guy: http://www.nevblog.com/images/prime-minister-of-malaysia.jpg http://www.nevblog.com/images/prime-minister-of-malaysia.jpg

littledude 15y ago

i used to work in a movie theater in high school, same theory applies. you can actually walk right in without a ticket and no tricks, just confidence and a sense of entitlement. my coworkers would never stop people with the balls to do it and it happened many times. walk close behind a group of at least 2 other customers. as their tickets are being ripped just keep walking past them at a normal pace, head facing forward, and without making eye contact. they will notice you but do nothing. go ahead and try it with a legit ticket in your pocket you can show them if they do stop you.

burgerbrain 15y ago

In my experience the best events to crash are art exhibit openings. You can do it with any attire (so long as you are the attire) and it's not hard at all to fake an appreciation for whatever art they may be showing. Furthermore, the faster you drink the less people care about how you act. People at exhibit openings tend to get positively sloshed.

JonnieCache 15y ago

Come back when you've made and used your own grappling hook, dodged barbed wire using carpet samplers, hidden in a ditch for two hours and blended into a samba procession in order to save £180 to get into a music festival. NB: Not all of the above were necessarily my exploits.

freshfey 15y ago

The funny thing is, if James Bond would do something similar in a movie, everybody would fall in love with the technique. But if somebody really breaks this down for you, it's wrong and "attention-seeking". As he says in the last part of the post, this is just another tactic of being scrappy and wanting to learn from other people. Why not use it for your advantage?

kahawe 15y ago
> The funny thing is, if James Bond would do something similar in a movie, everybody would fall in love with the technique. Well, James Bond saves the world and doing something like sneaking into a party is probably a 2/10 on his list of skills. All this guy does is desperately seek attention, religiously look up to money and then he seeks more approval and attention about it online.

kahawe 15y ago

> HEY. Hey you. Studies show if you don't read NevBlog.com everyday, you might die Really? Excellent! Because after reading that post, I will definitely never ever read that blog again on purpose, it makes me feel like dieing. This so reeks of the same annoying "openess" and impertinence I have only come to experience from typically Indian and Pakistani hagglers on the street trying to lure you into their clothes store. Congratulations, you played the monkey for an educated business crowd and they gave you attention. How surprising, educated and intelligent people are actually friendlier and forgiving than you thought! But still you were a dancing monkey, nothing more. You really feel proud of yourself? Here is a hint: these people are getting approached by the likes of you ever single day, you really think they didn't see through your "genius" charade you came up with in 2 seconds? I think rich people can't stand anything less than people who talk to them just because they "admire" their wealth. Your demeanor and actions very clearly show... you wouldn't stop at anything just to get some money and attention. You are the last person on earth I want to see coming into money because your borderline-religious fascination with it is dangerous and worrying. > Often out of the ghettoness and scrappiness, emerges something more refined. You are not ghetto nor do you accomplish anything actually pretty cool or worthwhile through shady means... you are just cheap and greedy. And you wrote a whole blog entry full of proof for that. And all those "genius" methods of being a cheap, greedy wannabe and what do you have to show for it? You talked to a couple of people... congratulations.

LisaG 15y ago

Love this sentence: Think about it, every event likes press coverage….and I was a quote on quote…“member of the press”! Cheesy formatting, total misunderstanding of "quote unquote" - the use of quotation marks afterwards is priceless, and an attitude of having discovered and revealed some great secret which is in actuality a ploy so tired it has been in bad movies for decades. This guy is passing, right. Definitely a dancing monkey.

dragons 15y ago

Sometimes, doing things like this can get "blown way out of proportion": http://www.wtae.com/r/23653787/detail.html http://www.wtae.com/r/23653787/detail.html (The blog writer was arrested along with 2 others for breaking into Pittsburgh Steelers' stadium in 2010.)