My Challenge to You
Monday, March 23, 2009 by Luke Turcotte My actions in the following story were immoral and possibly illegal. But hey, I’m in college and I can get away with these sorts of things.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user graciepoo
Half way through my first semester I heard grumblings about a way to “hack” the vending machines on campus that sold vitamin water. After swearing on my cat’s life that I wouldn’t tell anyone else, a friend agreed to show me how it’s done. By swiping a meal plan card and holding open the machine’s door for just the right amount of time, the machine would dispense a drink free of charge. I had hit the jackpot. Late at night, armed with a large duffel bag, I would “buy” drinks by the dozen. After a week of repeating this nightly secret-ops mission, I found myself with a closet full of vitamin water. Around residence, the secret was beginning to get out. This didn’t faze me, I was too busy living the high life; imagine all those suckers who paid $3 for vitamin enriched water? Therein lied the flaw of my secret scam. Nobody actually buys vitamin water. The huge fluctuation in sales over that two week time frame surely caught the personnel’s attention. “Machine Out of Order" the sign read, we’d been caught. Shortly after, the card scanners on the machines were replaced. This marked the end of my free vitamin water days.
You may be asking yourself, what exactly did you do with a closet full of vitamin water? Turns out this overpriced beverage is the perfect mixer for alcoholic beverages, the hydrating and vitamin replenishing aspects of vitamin water ensure you wake up feeling refreshed after a long night of drinking.
Although stealing vitamin water didn’t improve my grades or actually save me any money, it taught me an important lesson about college and about life. The way we live our lives is a personal decision. We can choose to follow the norm, do things the way they were meant to be done or we can hack it. Life hacking isn’t intended to be a strange and ridiculous set of instructions intended to be followed regimentally. Rather, it’s the mindset to live life as efficiently as possible, through whatever means you choose to take. Hacking the vending machines reminded me that even at college I didn’t need to follow the rules, I didn’t need to live the same way as my peers. Indeed, I could hack college and do things the way I wanted to, the way I deemed most efficient. This post isn’t to encourage illegal activity, it’s encouraging you to ignore authority, ignore standards and ignore what is perceived to be right. I guarantee you there is a better way to do everything in life, I challenge you to seek and implement more efficient methods in everything you do. I challenge you to hack college. I challenge you to hack life.
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Reader Comments (14)
How inspirational.
Is this CrackCollege ? Because this is not hacking life, this is cracking life.
I love HackCollege shows, but this is just stupid. You sure can get away with the stealing, I don't care, but do you really think that you have a point here ? or made a vaguely inspirational speech ?
"I challenge you to ..." "I challenge you to ..." was this ironic ?
Come on, get over yourself. You need a little content to pull off these kind of stuff.
I do not agree with Mark. I thought this was funny. "Late at night, armed with a large duffel bag". That's genius.
I thought it was a great way to promote illegal activity. I'm going to go jump some little kids now, thanks Luke!
In all seriousness I know some people who tied a quarter to a string and put it in the vending machine and took it out until they had their drink. $3 is ridiculous for a drink
I agree that unruly activity has no place in a post, I apologize.
I stand by the message expressed in the final sentences of the post explaining that life hacking is a mindset that anyone can adopt and those who hope to excel shouldn't hesitate to do what makes them most efficient. (please note that I'm not referring to illegal activity as a means of obtaining efficiency)
My goal was not to inspire, it was to define life hacking as I see it. I apologize that my enthusiasm for the subject was perceived as excessive.
Your situation here perfectly describes the Kantian ethical dilemma of lifehacking. What draws the line between a shortcut and cheating?
Came here from DumbLittleMan's blender. Expected something interesting, especially with the URL being "hack college".
You stole some water and didn't get caught. It's like telling us that the other day you went through a red light and nobody saw. You could still say, "Rather, it’s the mindset to live life as efficiently as possible, through whatever means you choose to take. "
It's bullshit.
I like what Chris wrote. There is a definite line for everyone morally about hacking. For some people the idea of "freeganism" is a hack, for others it's stealing someone decent ass garbage. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
I agree that illegal activity shouldn't be promoted but the overall message to challenge conventional ways isn't a bad one. Trying new things is the only way to find out what works best and to make any kind of change
heavens to murgatroyd - "vitamin water" was stolen? and a dorm dweller chose to expose how this heinous crime was perpetrated through this illustrious journal rather than allow this crime to continue unstopped until the last syllable of recorded time, or until the vending machine company figured it out for themselves? are you kidding yourselves? do you not see the irony of purchasing VITAMIN WATER? do you not see who the real criminal is here?
your lame attempt at a post is just a stupid way to justify your theft to yourself. try again.
This is truly a pathetic piece of journalism... Your justification of continuously breaking the law is ludicrous, and makes me wonder why they let you write articles. This piece had nothing to do with lifehacking... It's a story of a guy who pays 10's of thousands of dollars for an education that he spends ripping off soda machines. Seriously man, get a life! This is plain stupid. This goes for the whole HackCollege staff - Maybe you guys should write something that a) I haven't seen before on other sites and/or b) isn't regarding stupid shit that has no relevance to lifehacking. Consider this the last time I visit this site, because its lack of thoughtful journalism is appalling.
I agree wholeheartedly with what Dan said. This article is one of the most absurd things I've read on the Internet in the past...I don't know, ever. I am 100% through with this pathetic excuse for a lifehacking blog. The editors should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to be posted.
I love L Turcotte and all of his hack college work. To all you haters, i'm sorry you couldn't write anything tht people actually give a damn about, but judging by the great number of responses, something tht gets under your skin is something you'll remember. Luke buddy, keep up the great work, its truly inspirational!
Wow there's a lot of negative people. Seriously chill out. It's just a little article and you're saying you are not going to visit the website ever again? That's weak. You guys are the pathetic ones.
Continue on with your lives and don't waste the time to comment if you are just going to be a douche.
This reminds me of the time when I was at college. There was a Coke machine and if you held this particular coke button down for more than 10 seconds, one would dispense. Sooner or later, the campus knew about it and like this, it was shut down.