Three Evil Skills I Learned As a Child That Will Come in Handy As an Adult
The first evil skill I learned was trickery. Trying to deceive my parents is one of my earliest memories. I escaped from my crib by removing one of its loose bars, and then I got out and put the bars back in – as if trying to trick my parents that I was still there .
At least that’s what my child thought at the time. Since then I have had more practice and time to perfect this and other “evil” skills, which in my opinion was good. Gimmicks, playing the system, and lying can be useful skills that can be learned as an adult when applied appropriately.
This post is part of our Evil Week series on Lifehacker where we take a look at the dark side of goal achievement. Sometimes evil is justified, and sometimes knowing evil means knowing how to defeat it. I want more? Visit our wicked week tags page .
Trick
A trick is hiding your tracks or actions so you can get what you want (or avoid what you don’t want). All children learn this to one degree or another when they play hide and seek, looking for the best places to hide or the best way to outwit the seeker. As the SEAL explains, winning a game often requires distraction .
Childhood offers many opportunities to apply this skill. You will recognize it when you learn to take very important notes in class, or when you feign a fever to drop out of school. There was a strict rule in my house that children could not get up from the table if we did not eat every bite of our food (even if it was green or with gills). So I found out where in the cafeteria I can hide unwanted food and how to do it secretly. (To this day, my parents still talk about how they found disgusting moldy food stuffed into the bottom of the blinds or crevices in our dining room cupboards when they moved.)
Another time I wanted to watch a movie on cable with an actor I was obsessed with, but he had an R rating, so my parents wouldn’t let me watch it. I set up my VHS player to record a movie and then covered the VHS recorder and cable box displays with black plastic from trash bags so they wouldn’t know it was on. In hindsight, this was not a completely foolproof plan, but at least I tried (and needed to see a movie).
Cunning may not be an honorable skill, but it helps hone your problem-solving skills. All children learn tricks to some degree, and it usually takes practice to hone them. Whether you were sneaky as a kid or not, you could solidify your ploy skills as an adult by honing your critical thinking and observation – and perhaps even watching spy movies .
Tricks come in handy as you grow up, even if you don’t become a secret agent or assassin. I was at a surprise birthday party for a friend most recently and the level of tricks that the party organizers and guests went for was interesting. We parked around the block in case the birthday girl recognized any of our cars, put the kids as observers at all entrances, and made elaborate plans to distract her while preparations were going on.
In addition, you must be good at gimmicks to protect your privacy and security: When you are hiding your valuables and important files from thieves (or gifts from your family), applying for a job without your company , knowing about it , covering up your browsing history and even security when you suspect that you are being followed . These things are not just accepted, they are encouraged.
System game
Children are expected to know and follow the rules. But as with gimmicks, learning to bypass the rules – not necessarily breaking them – helps children and adults get what they want.
My daughter is constantly looking for loopholes. If I say, “Okay, you can buy one toy at the store,” she might take a toy, a dozen books, and other non-toy items and argue that I didn’t say she couldn’t take other things. I realized that I had to be very specific so that she didn’t corner me.
Pushing boundaries is fun when you’re a child (or a child at heart). Like other Gen X members, my friends and I grew up during the days of Atari, Commodore 64, and Nintendo. This was the era when many kids started sharing cheat codes, hacked games and tricks on how to hack the start screen. It’s literally a game of the game system, but the mindset that kids still develop today paves the way for different types of success in adulthood.
Penetration testers (or ethical hackers) and programmers obviously need to be able to spot loopholes, but so do doctors, lawyers, teachers, and pretty much everyone in every industry. By identifying outliers, inconsistencies, and what can go wrong, rather than relying solely on how things are supposed to work, we increase our chances of getting the right result or – yes – taking advantage of a system that often doesn’t work or is unfair. For example, copying your own DVD for personal use .
The loopholes are also not always unethical. Many people think that simply taking advantage of tax breaks is a loophole, but they are not illegal and can save you tons of money, even if you are not a billionaire or a giant corporation. The key is to know the system and, of course, know the risks of trying to bypass it.
Lying
Lying well is a skill. According to child development experts, lying is an important milestone in development and an integral part of healthy brain development. While children rarely lie noble, early practice means you are better at handling difficult situations when lying is more appropriate. White lies are normal later in life when you compliment someone or want to make them happy, when you want to protect someone or keep a secret, or when you need to cover up a bad fart .
All children lie , as do their adult peers. Maybe it’s because we can’t handle or are not ready for the truth. I remember my parents telling us that the beloved rooster on the farm of our grandparents “flew to heaven” (and that night we all ate chicken feast), just like I remember lying to my parents that everything equals. Lying is a skill that helps you cope with life, even if you’re lying to yourself. (Lying to yourself can help you lose weight , increase your self-confidence, and be bolder when you pretend until you succeed.)
Learning to lie with confidence does not necessarily make you lie more often or make you a psychopath. However, when you know how to convincingly lie, you can practice the art of manipulation, which is a universally useful skill.
Children use their manipulative powers to be on the side of the teacher so that they can do whatever they want afterwards, just like adults lie to their bosses to become beloved employees. This is usually a subtle lie: you look enthusiastic during a class or meeting, thinking you would rather be somewhere else, praising people or saying “good job!” when you really disagree – a petty lie that lubricates the wheels of society and creates less friction . Everybody lies .
As we’ve seen in every evil week here at Lifehacker, some of the skills we usually think are “bad” can actually be used for good, or they have natural skills that we develop in order to survive. I’m learning that it’s not just about saying don’t do it. I don’t necessarily want my daughter to lie to me or try to deceive me, but I understand when this happens. I want to encourage this curiosity (we have been really learning magic tricks lately and reading books like Brown’s Encyclopedia ) while teaching that using these skills too often is harmful and, as with any ethical gray zone, is software dependent. situations.