Lifehacks are that fun internet thing where someone comes up with a better way to do a thing that everyone does and makes everyone go WHOA! Like, if you take a cupcake and tear the bottom portion off and put it on top of the frosting, like a sandwich…that’s somehow better than eating it the normal way.

…some lifehacks are better than others.

The problem with lifehacks is when the hack is downright rude. I found a round up of lifehacks that had been shared on Reddit, that bastion of goodness and propriety, and some of them are shocking!

Many of them are full on illegal or unethical, cheating the system- like using blank Visa gift cards to make in flight purchases because the credit card scans aren’t processed until the plane lands.

However, many of them break etiquette in a particular way- they are something that might be okay if one person does it but if everyone did it, it would be impossible to get away with. This has actual real life repercussions- for example, student loans can’t be discharged through bankruptcy (mostly). Part of the reason why the law changed in the 1970s to disallow it was the fear that too many people would take the risk and declare bankruptcy when they didn’t really need to, early in life so that it wouldn’t affect them that much.

That’s an extreme example, but putting traffic cones in a parking space to hold it (winter snow parking excluded in some regions), is only going to work for one person. If everyone does it, then you’re going to see a sea of orange cones that no one pays attention to. Basically, you’re breaking the social contract and being a big jerk to everyone around you. And being a jerk is rude.