Lockpicking

I have recently stumbled upon The Document Which Used To Be Called The MIT Lockpicking Guide. A fascinating read catering perfectly to a hacker. It has everything! Technical drawings, graphs, a DIY section…

What makes lockpicking so entrancing? For me it is definitively the aspect of reverse engineering. Not unlike a fine mechanical watch, it is a contraption with high part count harvesting some basic physical phenomena, setting the stage for a multitude of possible solutions.

Which brings me to improvisation. I am fiercely competitive, a depressing thing to be in a time where 90% of things one would like to do can be done better by a $5 microprocessor, the rest requiring R&D budget of an established company or serious venture capital. Probably the same reason I like programming. Tools are readily available, there are no material costs or regulations. One can literally create what one wills giving rise to a profound sense freedom. I digress.

Improvisation. Implying some constraints playing field is once again levelled. Creative solutions become valid, making mundane problems interesting perhaps even challenging. Unsheathing one's trusty multitool and duct tape suddenly becomes a rational course of action instead of indulging a fancy.

I am off to scavenge materials for my lockpick and torque wrench. Arsene Lupin beware!