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Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#381

Post by zzo38computer »

quadcore wrote: post #259
yesenadam wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You rejected ethical behaviour 'on principle', you even seem proud of that. Have you kept doing that in life? Do you feel like an impostor, presumably with your degree that you didn't think you could acquire without cheating, or couldn't be bothered? A surprising number of the replies to your comment also seem to think cheating like that at university is perfectly fine.

My humble opinion. University is about learning (not, for example, status). Learning is something strictly personal. There is nothing fundamentally universally wrong to cheat at an exam beside the fact you may be harming yourself. Now since we need a little order for various secondary reasons, we promoted exam cheating to illegal and that's ok. We need order. But there is nothing someone should feel guilt for imho, a…

Yes. Learning is yourself. (University is also supposed to be about learning, although this is only partially true as it is implemented.) They have exam you can test, but that is difference from learning, although if you know the answer then you can see if you know the subject being learned. But you do not have to learn only that way; you can do many thing such as to read a book, figure out by yourself, or in this case, to attend the lecture. If you have a question because you do not understand the lecture, then you should ask, and that is how you can learn. Also, examsmanship is not same as learning the other subject, but, still you can learn examsmanship too. Noticed I mentioned before, I might to accept if the stuff you did for the cheating is subject of the class anyways such that it mean is good at it, then perhaps you can earn "SG" (meaning that, you pass regardless of what is your mark).

But still, memorization is not the same as learning. That is one thing that the test is not always so good; whether or not is "ethic" and/or legal is independence from that, because if you understand, then you can do, but if you know the word but don't actually know what is the significance, then you might answer the question same like that one but not the difference question that you can actually use.

(I remember once on one exam, the last question I did not know, and cheated off of someone who also didn't know and was cheating off of me (I don't know if they were cheating on other questions too or not, only that it is for last question), so in this case we cheat off of each other. Of course it is no good compared to all of the effort they mentioned above, but still you can see, you can be cheating off of each other the same question. I think this is the only instance of cheating on exams I have done, although once I tried to use the "coughing code" (without telling anyone!!!) just to see if I can, and not because I actually wanted to cheat, because I don't want to cheat.)

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#382

Post by zzo38computer »

yesenadam wrote: post #380
quadcore wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My humble opinion. University is about learning (not, for example, status). Learning is something strictly personal. There is nothing fundamentally universally wrong to cheat at an exam beside the fact you may be harming yourself. Now since we need a little order for various secondary reasons, we promoted exam cheating to illegal and that's ok. We need order. But there is nothing someone should feel guilt for imho, a…

I wasn't talking about law, I was talking about ethics. "There is nothing fundamentally universally wrong to cheat at an exam beside the fact you may be harming yourself." I don't understand that, I have no idea where you got that. Or what those words "fundamentally" and "universally" add. I say it's wrong, you say "Oh, but it's not fundamentally, universally wrong".. As if it's clear what that means. For example: Yo…

Yes, cheating is bad. But if you want to be interviewed to the job you need to see if is qualify to the job; some people can be good even if you have not went to the university or other schools, and even if you answered the exam it does not mean you are better at that particular job than another candidate but only that you know the answer of questions (or successfully cheating without being caught) and can be good at examsmanship.

If you are good at mathematics, you will invent a new theorem! If you are good at music, you will compose a new music! If you are good at chess, you can win! If you are good at exam answering, you can earn some more marks (guessing at answers if you do not know the answer)!

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#383

Post by siberianbear »

herodotus wrote: post #197

When I was a CS prof, many, many years ago, our undergraduate lab had Macs with floppy disks. I asked the University to pay for installing 10MB Hard Drives in the Macs. I was asked to present my case to the deans council. At the meeting, I said that the students used the floppy to load their development environment. I said that, with a hard drive, it took 10 secs to load and be ready. With the floppy, I said it took…

There's an anecdote [1] about Steve Jobs and the original Mac's boot time similar to this story.

One of the things that bothered Steve Jobs the most was the time that it took to boot when the Mac was first powered on. It could take a couple of minutes, or even more, to test memory, initialize the operating system, and load the Finder. One afternoon, Steve came up with an original way to motivate us to make it faster.

[...]

"Well, let's say you can shave 10 seconds off of the boot time. Multiply that by five million users and thats 50 million seconds, every single day. Over a year, that's probably dozens of lifetimes. So if you make it boot ten seconds faster, you've saved a dozen lives. That's really worth it, don't you think?"

[1] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#384

Post by sonnyblarney »

effie wrote: post #364
sonnyblarney wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Which important societal construct rests solely on the assumption that no students cheat " Society does not depend on wether or not a few students cheat. But society definitely depends on the social and moral contract that we do not cheat, and that it is wrong. If most of us cheated, the system would definitely fall apart. Have you ever visited a developing nation? Where outside of small villages it seems like every…

> It's like pouring sand into the gears of an engine: everything starts to break down. While true in general, cheating in that environment is also sometimes necessary to get on with your life unharmed. And sometimes cheating the system is actually regarded highly by the fellow citizens, because the people do not believe in the imposed system. Cheating is not beneficial to the system, but it often is to the people. No…

"And sometimes cheating the system is actually regarded highly by the fellow citizens, because the people do not believe in the imposed system. "

If you live a totally corrupt system, maybe.

But functional societies are based on the notion that cheating is bad, immoral, and nobody should do it.

"Now, what is more ethical, doing what benefits the people or doing what benefits such system?" - ha ha ... this sounds like how psychopaths in prison justify their crimes!

"I robbed the bank because the bank is evil, now who's more important, the people or the evil bank?"

No way around this one: cheating is bad.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#385

Post by TomMarius »

effie wrote: post #361
TomMarius wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many EU startups won't be interested in your academic records but such a project would make them hire you on the spot.

That sounds interesting. Are EU startups known for less interest in uni credentials than US startups?

I'm not sure - but it became a meme in EU because other fields typically require good academical background, whereas IT is seen as done by punkers.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#386

Post by rlonn »

yholio wrote: post #90

I somehow decided I needed to cheat to pass a certain exam because I was basically crap at memorizing stuff. So I used an analogue wireless headphone, an induction loop around my neck and a mobile phone. Since I lacked an accomplice to dictate, I read aloud the hundreds of pages and recorded myself, careful to preserve and properly serialize things like complex formulas. This was before the era of iPods and SDCard pl…

If you'd told me this in an interview, I'd have hired you on the spot. The biggest issue with cheating, IMO, is that it can indicate laziness, but in your case it definitely doesn't - the story is great and says you're a highly creative person who gets things done and doesn't have to follow norms.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#387

Post by 8bitsrule »

herodotus wrote: post #197

When I was a CS prof, many, many years ago, our undergraduate lab had Macs with floppy disks. I asked the University to pay for installing 10MB Hard Drives in the Macs. I was asked to present my case to the deans council. At the meeting, I said that the students used the floppy to load their development environment. I said that, with a hard drive, it took 10 secs to load and be ready. With the floppy, I said it took…

Interesting. By coincidence last night (while playing with a new streaming-stick) I did a little quick calculation. If I watched, on average, only 18 minutes of advertising per day, and did that for 40 years, that adds up to 6 months of my life.

What else might I have done with that 6 months? I will never know. But I know this: I won't be doing that any more.

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#388

Post by IloveHN84 »

cimmanom wrote: post #281
smadge wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate more as to why you possibly would want to automate the facial recognition of prematurely born babies?

Some guesses: to alert nursing staff in a preemie ward immediately (instead of waiting for a scheduled round of checks) when a baby is in pain or hungry or needs a diaper change, etc.

Exactly, preventing stress situations which can lead to complications

Re: Ask HN: What's the hardest problem you've ever solved?

#389

Post by thirdsun »

yread wrote: post #348
ak39 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say the same thing. We really need a HN hall of fame for many of these types of comments. Pure gold. Made my Sunday.

I've made htts://www.reddit.com/r/HNDepthHub to share interesting comments, feel free to add some

Your link is missing the p in https. An I agree, hnbestof sounds like a better name for the sub. Would love to see it become more popular.
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