11 Hilarious (and slightly unethical) Life Hacks

Not unethical -- but still totally cool.

Ahh, crowdsourcing. The greatest way to build encyclopedias, web browsers and lists -- including this amazing compilation of "unethical" life hacks I stumbled upon the other day. My favorite of which I've included in this post.

By no means do I endorse anything on this list -- but by all means do I find them amusing.

Study Guide Arbitrage 

"Send out a mass email to your class a day or two before an exam saying you just finished a study guide for yourself and would be up for swapping with anyone else in the class.

Don't actually make a study guide; they send you theirs and you send back someone else's. You get study guides, they get a study guide, it's a win-win for everyone."


Free Breakfast FTW

"In the morning, between 7-10am walk into most major hotels and enjoy the free continental breakfast. No one is asking for any verification and since people sometimes take the food to their room to eat in comfort, feel free to just take it to your car and haul ass. Don't know what hotel has a free continental breakfast? Just call some hotels the night before."

I won't confirm or deny whether I've done this or not. But if you're not a phone person, you could totally just Google it.


Free Booze at Any Airport

"Go to any airport and buy a fully refundable first class ticket anywhere. It will get you access to the first class lounge where you can drink  all you want for nothing And then, a few minutes before the flight, stumble back to the desk and cancel your ticket."

Also little known, but completely ethical and worth noting: almost all plane tickets are fully refundable within 24 hours of purchase.


Free Soda at Disneyland

"Disneyland is a well-oiled machine. They HATE 'dissatisfiers.' One example of a dissatisfier is buying a soda, then going in for a refill and being asked if you've paid yet or not.

Disney solved this problem by implementing a clever little trick:

They keep the straws outside.

That way, when people come inside to buy the drink, they pick up their cup and fill it at the fountain -- then go outside and get a lid and a straw.

If you have a straw in your cup, that signals to employees that you've already paid...

But if you bring a straw in with you when you go to get your soda originally, then put it in the cup, you won't be charged for it."

Another fun Disney fact: many amusement parks hire someone to stand by the photo screens and forbid patrons from taking photos of the photos of them on the rides. Disney does not do this, because it would be a dissatisfier. 

Yet another fun Disney fact: reduce your wait times by taking advantage of single-rider lines, when applicable.


Last Minute Change of Plans? This One Trick Will Get You Your Deposit Back Every Time.
​
"Call the place where you made your reservation -- but don't cancel. RESCHEDULE. Pick a date that falls outside of the "non-refundable" timeframe. Then, call back the next day and cancel, and you'll get your money back.

If you feel guilty about it (the two times I've had to do this, I felt really bad), write them a good Yelp or Trip Advisor review. Like them on Facebook or RT one of their deals on Twitter. Or remember what great customer service they had, and book with them next time you travel. Read more >"


Drink Good Stuff Cheaply

1. Go to a casino.
2. Exchange $1000 to tokens.
3. Play roulette, blackjack etc. with only $100 or less total, but keep all the tokens always visible on your table, as if you wanted to play with them.
4. Waitresses seeing your tokens will present you free drinks to get you wasted.
5. Drink.
6. When you're done exchange your tokens (should be >=$900).
7. Go to wherever you wanted to go, possibly where drinks are expensive (everywhere?).

Walking on the highway gets you a free ride anywhere you want by the cops.

"Make sure you have your student identification card and pretend to be new in town."

Given the number of dead bikers and pedestrians I've seen this in the news this year, I'm  not really sure if it's worth it, though...


Free All-Day Parking

"If you live in a busy city and want free parking for the day, go to a garage/mechanic that offers a free service such as tire rotation or pressure check. Take the car to them early in the morning and say you can't pick it up until the evening. Free parking for the day.


How to Hide a Body

"If you have to bury a body, bury it, then fill in the hole half-way, put in a dead animal, and fill the hole. When sniffer dogs find it, police will dig down and find the dog, call it a false alarm and keep going."

Another user disagreed.

"Putting a dead animal a few feet over a dead body is risky. The easiest way to get rid of a dead body is to feed it to pigs. It usually takes 3-4 hungry pigs about 20-30 minutes to completely consume the avg. sized human, bones and all. The only thing they can't digest are the teeth."

I sincerely hope that this is a hack none of my readers ever has to use.
​

Best Toilets in Town

"The best public bathrooms in a city are in the expensive hotels."

Expensive hotels also tend to have free wifi (as well as fireplaces and nice furniture) in their lobbies. The way I see it, you're not hurting anyone by being there -- and you might even end up spending money at the bar or restaurant. 


Cheap Iced Latte 

"Order a shot or two of espresso in a large cup, ask for ice in another cup. Go to the creamer/sugar bar and pour the free milk and ice into your cup of espresso."

Other Starbucks hacks include:

"Sometimes one cup just doesn't cut it. Any time throughout the day and on any size, you can refill your cup with brewed coffee for just 50 cents during the same visit. Not a bad price for an extra pick-me-up.
More specifics on refills:

• They have to be either hot coffee, iced coffee, hot tea, or iced tea.
• You can get a refill even if your original drink was not one of the ones mentioned above."

Good to know. Also: 

"You don't have to reach for bottled water in Starbucks, as the water at Starbucks may even be cleaner. The ice and water used in Starbucks is triple-filtered!"

And: 

"Iced Teas are double-strength in pitcher and watered down for your final recipe. To get more a bang for a buck, request 'no water' with your tea, and it won't be watered down."

Finally:


"The workflow of a Starbucks cafe will generally start with 1 person running cashier, 1 person making drinks. A third person will ring / make drinks, a fourth person will split the duties 2 & 2 or do bakery / sandwich preparation. In terms of beverage crafting, Hot and Cold beverages are separated. The takeaway? If everyone in line is getting hot drinks (white, paper cup), get a cold drink to decrease wait time. The corollary: If there are a lot of cold beverages to make, get a hot drink, or coffee."

***

​Have a favorite (ethical or unethical) life hack? Share it in the comments.