Social Engineering Task 9

This week’s task was to do ten good deeds for strangers and provide evidence.

My strategy was to simply go through my daily routine and take things as they come. As a former Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader, I try to follow the Scouting motto which is “Do a good turn daily.”

My strategy was fairly effective but I was only able to document 8 of 10 good deeds as of this writing. It was very difficult to provide evidence in many cases because some people get very upset when you take their picture. In one instance it got rather nasty so excuse me if I leave out the details.

My usual routine of work, come home, do homework and hang out with my wife does not provide many opportunities to do good deeds for strangers other than on the T or at work. I will list the tasks I performed and let you all be the judges:

1.       Help guy with baby carriage get on the T during evening commute

2.       Tell person from out of town how to save money with a Charlie Card verses a Charlie Ticket.

3.       Give seat to mother with two young children. She turned out to be a psycho.

4.       Tell person that his backpack strap was hanging outside the door of the T.

5.       Gave a quarter to the old panhandler at the BHCC T stop.

6.       Returned lost package to someone at work that I don’t know.

7.       Told woman where to stand so the door will open in front of her on the T to get a seat.

8.       Gave a quarter to the young panhandler at the BHCC T stop. He walked away while taking the photo. He must of thought I was an undercover T policeman.

9.       No Photo. Gave a dollar to a real homeless person on the T.

10.   No Photo. Gave a quarter to real homeless woman on Washington Street.

As far as the moral stakes I have to ask myself if I would have done some of the deeds if they were not part of an assignment. It’s one thing to do something nice just for the sake of it and another because you are also getting something out of it. I did not gain any information or skills with this assignment that I didn’t already have. It did amaze me how many opportunities to help people on the T present themselves. I was glad to help people out and most likely would have done the deeds anyway except for two of them which was giving money to the two panhandles that work the front of the Community College T stop. I learned that the older guy that poses as a homeless vet and the young kid that poses as a homeless person have a scam going on. Those two take in more per day then I do at work. Plus they probably get entitlements worth more than my benefits package. If you want more information leave a comment after this post with your hacker email and I will provide you the details.