Yeah, you can get away with a lost of stuff if you have enough confidence to do it. Most of us don't really test the limits of what's possible. We end up selling ourselves short because we presuppose a lot of things to be risky or bad.

I've always taken this approach to things. You could almost call it the Dr. Who method.

Also wanted to say that I love the email subscription pop-up thingy so much more than the old one. Good job.

Cafe Stella in Los Feliz has an organic, grass-fed steak... Otherwise I would just shop at Whole Foods for meat. Also, lamb - because it's slaughtered while young - is by default grass-fed.

Great story. It reminds me of the time when my friends wanted to race on the Jackie Robinson parkway.

Now if ever been to brooklyn and seen where that Jackie can lead you , you'll be stoked and petrified at the same time.

It's a high way with so many twists and truns it feels like your in the game MIDNIGHT CLUB for x-box 360.

Any way, we raced all the way to queens from Brooklyn, which led to us wasting our time at some hotel because no one wanted give up the green stuff.( cash).

Then by the end of the night we all ate at a diner and passed out at home. Well at least I did.

I say this because as i was driving i was so scared not to crash the car, i said F it, And speed my ass off, just to live a little. Even though I came dead last and everyone was laugh about how slow I was. I didn't car because i had some chicks in the car, so i didn't give a ( fill in the blank).

So that my story and your was pretty awesome also. Nice post bro.

Hey Tynan,

I'm a little skeptical of this post. I agree wholeheartedly with you that "smashing" can be a good (and sometimes best) option, but I don't really agree with your thinking process in your examples.

1) "...the one time I break it [the no-lying policy] is when confronting authority figures who are enforcing rules they don't have the authority to negotiate" was hard to parse, but I'm reading it as saying "you can break rules when they don't have the power to stop you," which sounds fishy. If I'm reading this correctly (and correct me if I'm not), you can use this to justify a lot of things that are downright harmful.

2) In your RV situation, you said the police didn't have authority -- well... who would? A tow-truck and a lawyer? I'm not sure of what you're saying.

3) Your description of your X-Games smash makes your move sound not only harmless, but even generous: "By deceiving him we set ourselves up to take the blame...and no one is slighted in the process." I think this is off-base. What if you get caught and his boss is super-anal? Why would he not only punish you but punish him too? Yes, I agree that it would be a huge dick move and not all that likely, but it isn't all that unlikely either to have a real probability of hurting the guard for your personal gain. I think your justification is not strong in this case.

I myself enjoy smashing in real life when I think it is warranted, but I think we have to be responsible in their justification. In this regard, I think smashing is very similar to hacking, because they're both in that gray legal area before "crime," and doing it too much has the danger of numbing us with the idea that what we're doing is harmless before we do bigger and worse things.

I like your blog because you think clearly through most of your options and seem very honest with yourself, so I have questions about this one since it isn't as convincing (at least for me) as your usual ones.

Best,
-Yan

Nice post, but reading it here after getting the notification on my rss reader is kind of annoying, because there's a big ol' thing covering a third of my screen demanding to know my email. Why isn't there a way to click an [x] and make that go away? I'm already subscribed to your rss feed, I don't need to be on an email list too!

Awesome post. I find it hard to explain to some of the squarer people in my life that I have no respect for rules, just for doing the right thing, but that doesn't make me a bad guy.

You are applying the no-lying policy too huh.

I've been doing that strictly for 1 year plus too.

Being in the game changed my life.

But sometimes, telling too much bad stuff about yourself (cause you are being honest) kinda makes you look bad. I gotta not tell too much then. Not telling is not lying, right? ahaaha

I work on events and venue management and I seriously question your logic here.I would say 99% of the security guards I work with are decent polite people only doing their job.To somehow take pride in outwitting people who are not given power to negotiate strikes me as arrogant.
Security are usually put in place for two reasons: to protect revenue ( i.e. only people who have paid towards the cost of the event or benefit the event are admitted) and keep out the bad elements ( pick pockets, drug dealers etc).I don't have a problem with that and neither should you.
I wonder how much patience you have with people who do not benefit you trying to blag free copies of your e-books???

I totally jive with this post. I don't even pay attention to most authorities. I go about living my own life in the most ethically and morally way possible, based on my personal ethics. It makes life a lot easier and less shady, IMO.