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Hack the System
hackthesystem.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2012
Hack the System is a self-improvement blog on productivity, habits, networking, fitness and building businesses through unusual experiments.
What HN saysHN commenters link it mainly for the post about hiring someone on Craigslist to slap him for productivity, and for its travel hacking report.
19HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
21stories submitted
510story points
5 years agolast shared
2012people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1How I Hired Someone On Craigslist And Quadrupled My Productivity6 people · 235 points · first shared 2012 · 122 comments on HN
- 2The One Simple Social Tactic That Will Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life2 people · 4 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 3How to Network with Influential People2 people · 4 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 4The Mixergy Guide to Building a Recurring Revenue Business From Scratch1 people · 124 points · first shared 2012 · 51 comments on HN
- 5Becoming A Pop Star With Zero Experience1 people · 108 points · first shared 2013 · 54 comments on HN
- 6How to Lose 23 Lbs in 28 days (hint: it requires radical system-hacking)1 people · 14 points · first shared 2012 · 5 comments on HN
- 7How I Would Succeed If I Started With Nothing1 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 8How To Write 4x More Words Than You Ever Have Before1 people · 3 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 9The Mentor And The Mentee1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 10How to fly business class to Medellin, Colombia...for $771 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 11How to Learn a Language: 5 hacks to learning German in 3 months1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12How We Received a $40,000 Equity-Free Grant To Build Our Startup In Chile1 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13Guest Post: How Parker Used Systems To Hack His Way To Co-CEO1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 14Change a habit for good using bet-stacking system1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 15The Digital Nomad Gear List - How to travel the world with a small backpack1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
maneesh · 2022-01-08
When I'm about to travel or no I'm about to go through some experience that is likely to break my habit loops, are usually set a monetary bed with a friend. I call this the bet switch mechanism: By setting up bet and being held accountable, I'm able to change the way my brain thinks about the habit and always stick through over the critical period of environment change.
I wrote about it a long time ago on my old blog when I first started using it, and dug up the link. Sorry for broken images, etc:
https://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-bet-switch-mechanism-the-one-simple…
timpark · 2015-08-21
Along those lines: http://hackthesystem.com/blog/why-i-hired-a-girl-on-craigslist-to-slap…
Permit · 2014-06-20
I think I would like to try this. Seeing it done twice has really got me interested in this. I think the key is that you're held accountable for how you spend your time due to the screenshots.
Reminds me of how a guy hired someone to slap him when he got off topic while working:http://hackthesystem.com/blog/why-i-hired-a-girl-on-craigslist-to-slap…
I don't have a Mac, so I guess I'll have to build the screenshot/webcam stuff myself this weekend.
digitalWestie · 2012-10-18
I think this guy has a thing for slapping... http://hackthesystem.com/blog/how-to-get-slapped-by-50-colombian-women…
ssylee · 2012-05-30
You may want to take a look at the Travel Hacking report at http://hackthesystem.com/blog/. You can get free desk space and wifi using the hacks for free for 6 months (I believe), and then $95/year after that, anywhere around the world.
sillysaurus3 · 2017-10-26
FWIW, the justification is interesting. From https://thecuriousdeveloper.com/2013/09/15/get-a-good-start-with-mob-p…
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Why we tried it
When asked to implement a rather big task, like an epic, you’re often in a state where you have a pretty good picture of what needs to be done on high level, but on a lower level it can be very fluffy and unclear. Fluffy enough to stand in the way of being able to ”slice the cake” in nice, independent, deliverable user stories. Fluffy enough to give us problems if our aim is to have a structured, ordinary sprint backlog prepared, and to burn that backlog down continuously by developing small software increments for a couple of weeks. You know you’re in that fluffy state when:
- Someone asks where a good place to start this epic is and all possible ways you can think of are either intertwined and far from independent steps or just one big mega user story
- You get a urge to just start coding, hack away for a while and see where you end up
- You may even wish that you, for a while at least, could forget everything related to user stories, epics, backlogs and burn downs and just do some Programming, Motherfucker http://programming-motherfucker.com/
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Now, if this technique can supposedly solve that critical problem -- and it is critical; I spend >N% of my time in that sate -- we should give it the benefit of the doubt and just try it.
It sounds like the point is to spend a couple hours in an environment where forward…