Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by floatingatoll 2452 days ago
A primary point of a lock is to keep people from acting impulsively. Consider these scenarios, ordered by decreasing likelihood of "yes, you would peek your head in" — or "yes, you would slip in and steal something":

If your neighbor leaves their door open, do you peek your head in out of curiosity?

If your neighbor leaves their door unlocked, do you open the door and peek your head in out of curiosity?

If your neighbor locks their door with a combination of 1234, do you open the combination lock, open the door, and peek your head in out of curiosity?

If your neighbor locks their door with a radio-frequency lock, do you install an app to capture their lock signal and replay it later, open the door, and peek your head in out of curiosity?

None of these protect against a determined attacker, but they absolutely do protect against impulsive "low risk, high opportunity" actions.

1 comments

If the door is open and that is an unusual occurance, sure, I would knock on the door frame and call out to make sure they are alright / didn't forget to close the door, etc. For every other situation, no, I wouldn't.
Yes, thankfully, closed doors are enough for most people to curb their curiosity :)
I'm just not all that curious, to be honest. It doesn't need to be curbed, I don't care what you have in your house. Is this really a motivation that other people feel?
Yes. Not as many, but a few!