Most times Jeitinho is harmless, used to find creative solutions to nonsensical problems and/or excessive bureaucracy, as gatecrashing a party to obtain free food and beverage, or making extraneous handshake deals that don't follow exactly what's in the written contracts.
[2] An associated concept is "gambiarra", an improvised solution to technical emergencies with whatever means are at hand, or to 'jerry rig', e.g. attaching less-than-ideal materials to something that broke and make it functional again.
One way to understand jeitinho is as a recurso de esperteza, which means a resource used by espertos—savvy, cunning, or sly individuals who use common sense and prior knowledge, as well as naturally gifted intelligence in their thought processes.
In this work, jeitinho is tied to the idea that a typical Brazilian is a friendly, cordial man, prone to making initial decisions based on his emotions rather than his reason, and that this feature can be found everywhere in the country, from the highest offices of government to the most common situations of everyday life.
Elsewhere in Latin America, similar concepts include viveza criolla in Argentina and Uruguay, juega vivo in Panama and malicia indígena in Colombia.