Hack Your Life!!!

The Mind of a Hacker

Here is a task for you.

Take a piece of paper and copy the 9 dots you see to the right.

Next, connect the dots. Seems easy right? But wait there are 2 rules:

(1)- You have to connect the dots with ONLY 4 straight lines and

(2)- You canNOT lift your pencil.

Did you get it? Here is a hint; the rules do not state that your 4 lines must be contained within the ‘box’ created by the dots.

Get it yet??  Give up? If you gave up don’t worry about it. Almost nobody (including me) gets it on the first try.

If you did get it, gold star for you today. Those will add up in value real soon

Even though we are not told that you can work ‘outside of the box’ we still create that rule for some reason.

(Scroll to the bottom to see the answer)

The above task is called the 9-dot test and is typically used as a measure of creativity. The task tests your ability to evaluate the rules of the game and use them to your advantage.

During my indoctrination to MAD security and THA (i.e., baptism by fire) I was briefly told what is required when hacking. Hacking involves learning current behavior and weaknesses within the target and exploiting them. You’re learning the current human behavior rules and using them to your advantage. In other words,  hacking involves the exact same type of topic specific creativity.

But wait, the psychologist in my head says: Those that do well on the 9-dot test aren’t just creative in one aspect of life. They are usually all around creative, applying their tools to several aspects of their life. Is this the same with hacking? Can you ‘hack your life?’

Turns out Mike Murray had already suggested the answer to my question in a teleclass interview with Michael Neray, founder of the “The Essential Message.” Murray’s big platform was “Think like a hacker and grow rich.” While the rich part is awesome, I was immediately interested in how many people really employ this tactic. Do creative hackers demonstrate the same generalizability of their talent that painters, sculptors, and culinary artists do?

So began the survey on “How does THA hack life?”

It turns out over half of our members use hacking methods in their social and recreational lives?!?! I’ll admit, the first image that popped into my head was a bunch of people sitting in a room competing against each other in some dramatic hacking war but I was wrong…..well at least slightly… One THA member said that they “use some form of reconnaissance to feel out social and work circles…to eventually become trusted parties…”

Furthermore:

•  about 30% of our members use hacking at work/and or school for things like job interviews.
•  Almost 20% are even getting the “grow rich” concept by applying hacking to their finances and health!

Looks like creative hackers are just all around creative at applying their skills. Keep up the good work! Maybe you too can pull off the hipster-tortured artist look someday….but I wouldn’t count on it.