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Comment by SandB0x | Hacker News Reader

"Hey, do you mind watching my stuff for a minute?" works pretty well.

This is normally on a train or a library, and when there's someone around who doesn't look too shifty.

That's especially good with cute girls. Doesn't sound like a line (because it isn't), and often starts a conversation when you return.

+1 for geeks with social skills

That's especially good with cute girls

And because the girl's cute, she's sure to be honest!

OK, so it's horrible to be so paranoid, but c'mon - you're trusted a stranger with a lot of money. Would you stop someone in the street, point to $500 lying on the street, ask them the same and expect them to still be there when you come back?

The difference in liquidity and fungibility of cash and laptops means that people would behave differently in the two situations.

Most people know what to do with $500. Most wouldn't have a clue what to do with a stolen laptop, and wouldn't want to.

Most wouldn't have a clue what to do with a stolen laptop, and wouldn't want to

I sincerely hope that most wouldn't want to :) When it comes to what to do with a stolen laptop though, c'mon, it's a laptop, it's not like you've left them with an audiophile's wet dream of a $500 amplifier tube.

You would be amazed at how many people don't know how to use a Linux laptop that has its screen locked and its disk encrypted.

I think you would be amazed at how many would still give it a try.

> you're trusted a stranger with a lot of money

"A stranger is just a friend I haven't met yet." - Will Rogers

The term stranger is a useful tool to prevent children from trusting shifty individuals. As an adult, calling people strangers seems to me to be a good way to live in fear and fail to meet interesting new people. Most people are basically good.

No, most people are not basically good, not really. It is an illusion of goodnes that they give off, due to their indifference, and their going with the flow. If the flow is good, the illusion is maintained, and all is well. But when push come to shove, they will show how little they really care.

You're more pessimistic about people than their behavior in day-to-day reality warrants. We're not worried about intrinsic goodness, nor about goodness in extreme circumstances. We're only worried about effective goodness in normal circumstances. Can you ask someone to watch your stuff? Yes, you can. Whatever the reason, the vast majority of people can be trusted in the vast majority of circumstances. There are few that will simply let someone take your stuff when you ask them to watch it for you.

  when push come to shove

Push doesn't come to shove. When someone threatens them, they may as well have threatened you. When there's a sudden flood, accident or any other unlikely incident, then you're often no worse off having someone else watch your stuff.

I basically agree with you, but don't think you should worry about someone else coming and taking the laptop. It's the person you asked to watch it that knows you are gone, if anyone, it's they that would get up, take the laptop, and go.

But I think that risk is fairly small if you pick the right person. Ideally someone else with a laptop. They're likely not going anywhere, and they clearly already have a laptop...

I'm sorry, I did not mean to suggest otherwise. The illusion indeed is maintained in the vast majority of cases.

Yes, but whether it is an illusion is irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion. And to wander off into more philosophical territory: if you say it is an illusion, you suggest that there is an intrinsic, below-the-veil-of-illusion, goodness in people. That warrants a huge discussion in itself. I would argue there is no such thing: what we are talking about here is 'the' goodness of people. There is no illusion. That they don't behave equally good in different circumstances is not because they are intrinsically less-than-good: it's because the exact same human characteristics simply give rise to different behavior in different circumstances. The motivation/inclination of people to behave in a certain way is not due intrinsic 'goodness', but due to a variety of other intrinsic characteristics, such as 'fearfulness'.

Most people are basically good.

I completely agree, but for me it is based on how I see and interact with my community (and the surrounding ones). If I am working out of a library, coffee shop, etc. and need to go I will just leave everything as is. However, when I am in some other area I pack it up and take it.

Although it's always possible that the person you ask is one of the people who are not "basically good", if you're in a public place (such as on a train) then the fact that you've asked means the people sat around you will have heard, so if someone did then try and steal it (even if it was the person you asked), someone else will almost certainly stop them from doing it.

...The fact that you've asked means the people sat around you will have heard, so if someone did then try and steal it... someone else will almost certainly stop them from doing it.

Psychologists disagree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

For the extremely sad story for why this is nicknamed Genovese syndrome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

The bystander effect doesn't have much to do with this because you asked first. The simple act of asking changes peoples perceived personal responsibility.

Maybe it comes from growing up in London, but I will /not/ trust someone I don't know with goods that are worth a great deal of time and money to me.

I'm wondering if having been previously conned (thankfully many years ago now - the embarrassment has faded) has something to do with it. I fell for the man in dining suit asking to borrow money for his meal in a restaurant. I also fell for the girl in tears outside my front door, complete with baby in pushchair. And then, nearly every day in summer months, standing outside the pub, there's /another/ guy or girl who's lost their train fare home. There are more of them out there than you might think.

Recently my mom witnessed an interaction at our county fair where a woman was feeling symptoms of a heart attack, and feeling very ill. This woman flagged down someone, and handed her her iPhone to call for help. The passerby promptly took off with the phone, which is where my mom stepped in to use her phone to help.

I wasn't really commenting on whether or not it's smart to trust someone you don't know with your laptop. I was mainly commenting on his use of the word stranger which really stuck out to me as a term that seems misplaced when used by an adult.

I am sure there is some correlation that can be made between cute girls and trustworthiness!

Yes, a negative correlation :)

Actual experiment carried out in the 90s. Researchers left wallets on the street in various cities, with $100 each, and with sufficient ID to let someone mail it back. They got almost all of the wallets back, and the vast majority still had the $100. Many had notes along the lines of, "You're lucky I was the one who found this. Most people around here would have just taken the money."

The lesson that I took from this is that most people can be assumed to be honest most of the time. The dishonest minority stands out. But yes, in the situation you describe I'd be willing to bet that the $500 would still be there when I came back.

> "Hey, do you mind watching my stuff for a minute?" works pretty well.

It works pretty well with people who are street-smart enough and really care about other's possessions. I once trusted my purse to a friend of a friend because I had to go on stage to act. When I returned, my purse was hanging from her chair, unwatched. So, it's not about honesty, it's about people really caring about your gear and being able to look after it. Environment matters, too. That time it was a crowded place. A library it would be different.

Well, it had already happened to me, that someone asked me to look after his stuff and that he will be right back. And then… time went on. And I had my own business and couldn't wait (On a train, you have to get off, for example, that gives you no solution). What then? I've agreed to watch your stuff for a minute, maybe two, maybe even a few more. But not for half an hour. I would just leave, what else can I do (ok, ask someone else to carry on with the duty, silly).

Yes, one should consider such an issue too. Thanks for sharing.

However, in my case, she was still there because she had been watching us play and afterward we went to a pub all together. I just wanted to say that either she didn't care or she trusted too much other people.

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