A dubious brag

[Michael C. Jacobs]

For the first time today I successfully picked a lock. I was able to repeat the feat a couple times too.

The things we do for research. OK, also so we can brag that we did them.

[Michael C. Jacobs]

I've tried on and off for a while. There are a number of good tutorials online (If you're interested I could post some links) but I don't especially have a good mind for seeing from pictures how three dimensional things go together. Thus my problems assembling Ikea furniture as well. :)

What really helped me was watching a few people do it on YouTube. I was able to to get a rough sense of the movements involved, and where you might set the tension wrench for example.

I will add, I suspect it doesn't make any sense to buy a jumbo pick set. Three or four picks and a couple tension wrenches are probably all you need for most regular pin-tumbler locks. I mean it's not as if you can use x-ray vision to peer inside and see what will fit best. And if I had x-ray vision, no way would I be wasting my time on this!

[Daniel Hatadi]

Cool! I remember becoming somewhat obsessed with this when I was reading a biography of Richard Feynman (Nobel physicist who picked locks at Los Alomos), but I never got anywhere with it.

I'm jealous.