This is the same guy who would trade in his leased Mercedes in less than 6 months so that he could have a barcode for a license plate.

Culturally, he was a hacker--looking for the gaps in institutional systems and getting a perverse pleasure in exploiting them.

Billionaire sticks it to the Man by carefully following his rules and getting brand new Mercedes every six months.

Yeah I feel like this is more "sticking it to the average person who could never afford this" than "the man"

Steve Jobs' personality had a large role in pushing his success, but it's also the type of personality of someone who just wants to be different because they think being different is superior (and yes: sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't). If he were a kid in the 90s he'd be ~~ tYpInG aLl hIs ImS lIkE tHiS ~~

Like this? NeXTstep NextStep NEXTstep...

> If he were a kid in the 90s he'd be ~~ tYpInG aLl hIs ImS lIkE tHiS ~~

iMac, iPod, iPhone

If you really want to stick it to the man, following the rules is the way to do it. Nothing pisses people off that not liking what you're doing but being able to do nothing. This is why working to contract is a way of protesting at work.

I would presume this would prevent a lot of tickets as you don’t have a normal license plate.

hahahah thanks for the laugh

It can very easily be both.

What benefits exactly can be derived from driving without license plates that make it a "hack"? Avoiding getting arrested for hit-and-runs? Not getting tickets from red light cameras?

From what I recall, he didn't like the aesthetics of the license plate (to which I can't really blame him).

It's also because CA DMV is a bit of a shit show - buy a car and you won't have plates for MONTHS, so seeing cars with no plates (at least in the Bay area) is super normal.

As an ex-NYer (where such things are strictly forbidden, heh) it was a bit jarring to not have a plate for 3-5 months.

Since when does hacking necessarily involve benefit? It's a clever exploit, getting by without license plates, and I can imagine how that might be satisfying on its own, for purely aesthetic reasons; it doesn't need to be practical.

By your definition, wearing a wig and sunglasses to get away with shoplifting is a "clever exploit." Refusing to put license plates on your car so you cannot be identified for breaking the law is antisocial criminal activity.

"Clever" is a matter of opinion; it's hard for me to imagine what aspect of a wig-and-sunglasses stunt there could be which would make it seem clever, but I suppose it's possible.

Perhaps Jobs' strategy for avoiding license plates was "antisocial criminal activity" and perhaps it wasn't; I'm not a lawyer, and I don't really care - but what does that have to do with the question of whether or not it was a hack?

"Refusing to put license plates on your car... is antisocial criminal activity." - cdcfa78156ae5

Of course there's no name.

> Of course there's no name.

That's because this is an Internet post, not a car that can be used to maim and kill people.

Thanks. That didn't cost a new car; you missed the point.

Not having license plates on your car can in and of itself be a benefit, if one doesn't want license plates on one's car. AIUI that was the benefit Jobs was looking for.

Parking tickets. He mentions it in an interview. He parked like the proverbial asshole and avoided the fines this way.