Ethics and Rule Breaking Among Life Hackers

I just realized I never posted an abstract or draft on “Ethics and Rule Breaking Among Life Hackers.” This followed Hacking Life because I wanted to better evaluate the ethic of rule bending, breaking, stretching, or exploiting. Sadly, I never found a home for it because it’s a weird combination of practical ethics and pop-culture. Perhaps one day I will find a home for it, but until then:

Abstract: Life hacking is self-help for the digital age. Its gurus recommend that life—including yourself and others—be treated as a system of rules to be optimized or subverted. Self-help authors Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek) and James Altucher (Choose Yourself) advise that the rules of social life be hacked so to “make the impossible possible” and “get everything you want.” I analyze their advice relative to the interplay of abiding versus subverting the spirit or letter of a rule yields. This yields four different types of advice: that rules be bent, broken, stretched, and exploited. I consider each relative to the critiques of life hacking and Kant’s categorical imperative: “can you also will that your maxim become a universal law?” This effort yields a new avenue for engaging with popular culture, and these distinctions can help those who wish to hack (life) ethically and challenge those who do not.

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