Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies , and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations...for Fun and Profit! [Paperback]

Ronald Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2009

It's Tony Soprano meets Steal this Book . . . with you coming out on top every time!

Finally, a brilliant guide to outwitting and outplaying the lopsided world of the law and power. Lemon computer? Learn how to make them take it back and give you a brand new, better, faster computer instead. Got a speeding ticket? Learn how to get out, fast. Tired of fighting with the cable company over incorrect charges on your bills? Learn how to get them to reverse all the charges in question . . . and get additional credits, instead. Big box stores seem like big busts? How to get the most from them. Want to screw the airlines—just like they've been screwing you for years? And much, much more. Don't bother fastening your seatbelt—that law is for girly-men—but hold on for this exciting read! 20 color illustrations

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ronald Lewis is a strong opponent of careless and greedy powerbrokers in corporate America and the hallways of Washington, D.C. Lewis blogs frequently about monetary policy in America and he is a outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve Banking System.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing; 1st ed edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602396418
• ISBN-13: 978-1602396418
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Constantly investigating innovative and new ideas, RONALD LEWIS is out to change the world. Through his career as an independent journalist, Ronald has been able to establish and cultivate relationships with some of the biggest names in technology and the most talked about names in entrepreneurship. Currently, he is an advocate for several revolutionary technologies and serves as an activist against the unknown injustices which plague our culture. His life of research and interest in just programs lead to the publication of his first book, Stick it to the Man, released summer of 2009 through Skyhorse Publishing.

Ronald's success hasn't come easy. After many starts, failures, and restarts he has finally found his groove and established a wonderful life in Denver, Colorado. His life is proof that the only requirements for being successful is to never lose sight of your goals - a message he hopes to inspire in others.

Born in Detroit, Michigan to a very supportive mother and a very neglectful father - Ronald did the only thing a child could do at that age: excel in school. His curiosity and appetite for information usually placed him at the top of his class. Ronald, with his infinite imagination, made his first computer out of construction paper. At the age of 10 Ronald's neighborhood landscaping business served as his first start-up company and ignited his entrepreneurial spirit for life.

Things only went up for Ronald from there. His industrious attitude and appetite for things that were new always lead him to the next step. At a young age he taught himself how to program computers using Microsoft QuickBasic and, later, Visual Basic.

At the age of 15 Ronald attended an engineering conference where he first saw Bill Gates speak. Lewis later sent a letter to Gates, expressing his enthusiasm towards his technology and his team of engineers. Gates, impressed with how well informed a 15 year old could be, maintained correspondence with Lewis. Over the coming years, Ronald would test numerous software programs and would receive awards for this work including the Spirit of Detroit and Microsoft MVP.

Over the next several years Ronald experienced highs and lows. At his worst, he was in debt, crashing with friends, and undergoing mental and emotional stress from the death of his father and the divorce from his wife. At his highest, he was on a South by Southwest panel about race and technology, hosting an online interview show featuring guests from Cisco, Carnegie Melon, and Southwest Airlines, and publishing a book about how to skirt our country's major financial institutions.

Currently, Ronald lives and works in Denver, where he continues to advocate new technologies such as Square, VoIP, and Cloud Computing. He is also an activist against big banks and has hosted several major speaking engagements. Currently, he believes in living a "life without limits" and proposes everyone do the same - to recognize your own limitations, visible and otherwise, and to not let them keep you from achieving what you most want from life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some may find it helpful, July 16, 2009

By 

Claude Greenmount "semper ubi sub ubi!" (The Universe) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies , and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations...for Fun and Profit! (Paperback)

Some of the "solutions" mentioned in this book aren't really solutions at all, most, as one reviewer mentions, are hardly groundbreaking and derive from either common sense or common knowledge. However, being mindful of the saying "Common sense is not so common," andy by extension, Common Knowledge may not be either, I admit the book may be useful to some. I disliked the writing style intensely (sort of an odd combination of "gee whiz, guys, we can do it!" and Hotel conference room sales pitch technique). It irritated me to the degree that I could only get thru a few pages at a time before putting it down and turning to something else.
Per example: the solution to "weak, watered down, and terrible coffee:" Go to another coffee shoppe and tell the owners of that big chain you won't be back. Wow. Did you *really* need a $12 book to tell you that? The tips on dealing with airlines are no longer current-- and actually had been long outmoded *before* the publication date; anyone trying to put one over on an airline company using the "advice" contained here is going to be disappointed and probably embarrassed.
I did eventually make it all the way thru the book and was dismayed to find that in spite of my high hopes, and after searching thru the entire text again, I learned *nothing at all* about "screwing big fat corporations" or "scamming my enemies."
Here's a tip though: If you get conned into buying a book that disappoints on nearly every level and fails to deliver it's promise, register with Amazon.com and write a review that lets thousands of people know how the publisher is rooking you.
The only problem with this is that it will be rather difficult to re-sell your copy.
I gave it two stars because, if nothing else, it does cover a large number of everyday minor irritants and some larger ones, and perhaps, someone may find some tidbit or two useful.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who's getting stuck?, August 28, 2009

By 

N. Long - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies , and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations...for Fun and Profit! (Kindle Edition)

This book failed to deliver any useful advice for me and I would categorize most of it as not advisable. Stick it to a truck driver tailgating - slow down and smile in your rear view mirror??? Avoid high real estate commissions - offer an agent $500 to put the listing in the multiple listing service??? I don't want to give more of the book away but expect more of the same advice that didn't seem to provide any insightful help to me.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Anyone can get a book published, December 16, 2009

By 

Stephanie Samek "Stormsteff" (Corunna, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies , and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations...for Fun and Profit! (Paperback)

Seriously, this publication proves it's true. I have worked in a used bookstore for 30 years and have rarely seen as lame an excuse for a book as this. The title does not properly explain the contents at all, and some of the missives in the book are just the author on a rant or telling stories. Also, the writing is really sub-par on top of it. Can it get any better?

Most of his other suggestions to 'stick it' to whomever are fairly obvious to the average person, or likely entirely outside of their skill set (such as checking out freeware like MySQL, Linux, and Apache via downloading and playing with them. Are all average folks really that computer savvy already?)

Okay, maybe I'm just such a brain that this book is beneath me. But it really HAS given me confidence that anyone can write a book lacking REAL content and someone may publish it. Just hit the net, gather your useless info, try and make it funny, and you are good to go!