How do I minimize the chances of TSA agents confisticating liquids larger than 3 ounces?

Simple: Label them as saline solution.

We took our shoes off and placed our laptops in bins. Schneier took from his bag a 12-ounce container labeled "saline solution."

"It's allowed," he said. Medical supplies, such as saline solution for contact-lens cleaning, don't fall under the TSA's three-ounce rule.

"What's allowed?" I asked. "Saline solution, or bottles labeled saline solution?"

"Bottles labeled saline solution. They won't check what's in it, trust me."

They did not check. As we gathered our belongings, Schneier held up the bottle and said to the nearest security officer, "This is okay, right?" "Yep," the officer said. "Just have to put it in the tray."

"Maybe if you lit it on fire, he'd pay attention," I said, risking arrest for making a joke at airport security. (Later, Schneier would carry two bottles labeled saline solution—24 ounces in total—through security. An officer asked him why he needed two bottles. "Two eyes," he said. He was allowed to keep the bottles.)

Travel tip courtesy of security guru and merciless TSA critic Bruce Schneier. Probably not worth trying with a green goopy bottle of shampoo though.

The best way for TSA agents (or any other airport security in the world) not confiscating liquids larger than 3 ounces is to not carry them.

You can replace toothpaste by tooth powder.

You can replace shampoo by Aleppo soap.

You can replace shave cream by shave soap (or Aleppo soap if you don't mind travelling light with one multiusage item).

You can replace after shave and deodorant by potassium alum.

They usually tell you to throw them away. I had to throw away a brand new tube of toothpaste that I have mistakenly left in my bag.

But they do miss occasionally, or rather "look the other way", and it happened to me as well a couple of times. I wouldn't count on it. I believe its more of a common-sense-bend-the-rules discretion of an individual officer, rather than a matter of policy. And while common sense is something we all like, it is apparently something frown upon at TSA.

Legally they're required not to let you in with too big a jar of liquids.

For short-term travel, I often bring small reusable nondescript containers which can be bought from your favourite make-up store, and fill them with any lotions, ointments, balms, unguents, pastes and other colloids I might need.

Obviously you can't use this method for products which are pressurized (shaving cream/gel), as well as fragrances. For the former, you might consider replacing with soft soap (which works well unless your beard has the density and abrasiveness of a metal brush), and for the latter, non-liquid sticks kind of work.

Unmarked containers that are of reasonable size can get through, too. I've been using Crest toothpaste that comes in a blue plastic flip-top bottle that is 5 or 6 ounces. The label is shrinkwrapped around it, and removing that removes the size marking, making it an unmarked, but oversize, container. I've flown enough to go through three of them in the past few years.