

The $20 Theory of the Universe - fallentimes
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0303-MAR_20DOLLARS

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tptacek
I've had luck saying "is there _anything_ I could _possibly pay_ to make this
better for me?" For instance, I got my car sprung from a Chicago city impound,
where it would have sat over a weekend racking up fees (they wouldn't release
it until I got a licensing thing worked out, but the impound lot tow guys
would tow the car out of the lot for me for a couple bucks).

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jwesley
How do you say "Tip people $20 and they will sometimes give you what you
want." in 2000 words or more?

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jackowayed
There's a fine line between good writing and verbose writing.

I'm taking a writing class right now, and they really stress that real-world
examples explain your argument better and make the writing more interesting,
and I think that's actually true.

That said, giving too many examples makes it too long to be worth people's
time and/or bores them with too many examples that are too similar.

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daveambrose
This is quite interesting when you take into consideration what the author was
doing: haggling. It's usually a mute point, as many don't talk about
how/where/why they haggle as the action is under the radar - particularly here
in the US.

Certain cultures outside of the States embrace haggling as a predominant means
of exchange, i.e. in China via tuangou: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuangou>

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tlrobinson
I realize it was an experiment, but some of the examples are sort of silly.

$20 for some corporate meeting's catered buffet? Why not just buy a nice lunch
with the $20?

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papersports
In New York you'd never get two plates and two beers for $20.

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swombat
Wow, maybe this works with politicians too?

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InVerse
yuck.

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time_management
Usually I consider TL;DR to be the sign of a dull-minded loser, but...

well, I can't say TL;DR. If it were more interesting, I would have read it to
the end. TB;DR.

