Flag Bad Hacks on the DiWHY Subreddit
“Geek to live,” Lifehacker has always said. Don’t live for computer geeks. This means you shouldn’t let your life hacks get in the way of your real life. And the DiWHY subreddit shows why. There shouldn’t be such hacks. They are uglier, wasteful, useless, or time-consuming than any conventional product or method they replace. And they’re damn fun to watch.
Some bad hacks solve a problem that no one else has. One of the best designs, the DIY soda fountain shown above, looks cool at first. But this is just a Rube Goldberg machine for sucking soda from liter bottles. Its construction involves soldering, drilling, tapping, and sourcing for certain materials such as plastic pipes. If you do each step correctly, the cardboard machine will still deteriorate after a couple of parties. Why not pour the soda out of the damn bottle?
Other hacks technically work, but they are so ugly that no one would bother. Why turn your underwear into a crop top at all ? Either it’s old underwear, which is indecent, or it’s new and you should buy a cropped top instead. Why would you make a crude salt shaker out of a soda bottle? Salt shakers are like a dollar. As Twitter user Rose Princess once told of the gruesome DIY project, “White people want to be poor so badly.”
Other hacks are just the dumbest kind of thinking outside the box. Make your own ice cream bowl by cutting Ben & Jerry’s bowl down the middle . Or, as someone remarked on Tumblr, “YOU CAN JUST REMOVE THE FUCKING COVER.”
And some of the gimmicks defy all understanding and can only be appreciated as avant-garde art. Watch this video, which showcases an elaborate cigarette dispenser made from a Coke bottle for no reason. (Video via LHack TV, which contains many more confusing Coca-Cola hacking tricks.) Or check out this concrete tray supported by a wine glass . Don’t look too closely or it will break.
It’s hard to say which hacks are bona fide attempts by people who haven’t come up with their ideas, which are cynical games created by content factories, and which are performance art or parodies. After all, there is an entire art form called chindogu that celebrates meaningless inventions.
A pizza box briefcase must be a fool, right? Whoever turned a riding mower into a motorcycle is clearly joking. And this collection of increasingly dumb hacks may not be serious, but many Reddit commenters seem to take it at face value. Some even discuss the merits of certain hacks.
So be careful. Looking at them, you can get so disconnected from reality that you start thinking: “Wait, this might work!” Is not. Close the window, walk away and use the household items as directed.