21–30 of 81 posts
For cheating and being lazy to testing code, the common factor is the lack of pursuit to be responsible. So these behaviours can be a result from a person's character.
Another possible theory is that in response to systems that they don't like, they prefer to tricking them instead of other options such as don't care or quitting.
I'm a little appalled by the number of people who apparently think cheating is fine. Is integrity so uncommon? As I stated another comment, the problem I have with cheating is that it's dishonest, as you're passing someone else's work off as your own. It demonstrates a lack of respect for the person who did the work, the person you're doing the work for, every student who worked hard enough to do the work themselves,…
Define 'cheating'. I've never cheated, but I voted 'it depends', because, as always, everything depends on intentions and circumstances. I can perfectly understand people saying 'this assignment/test is ridiculous. I'm not going to put any effort in it and rather copy/cheat and spend my time in a more productive way'. Now I don't think you should copy from someone if that person objects. However, I've never worried a…
I can understand why someone might say that, but it would still be immoral and dishonest of them to cheat. When you take a class, you enter into a contract (often an explicit academic honesty policy) to not cheat. If you find the assignment ridiculous, then don't take the class, register your objections with the professor, or don't hand in the assignment. You can't ethically disregard the terms of a contract just because you deem them "ridiculous."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Define 'cheating'. I've never cheated, but I voted 'it depends', because, as always, everything depends on intentions and circumstances. I can perfectly understand people saying 'this assignment/test is ridiculous. I'm not going to put any effort in it and rather copy/cheat and spend my time in a more productive way'. Now I don't think you should copy from someone if that person objects. However, I've never worried a…
I can perfectly understand people saying 'this assignment/test is ridiculous. I'm not going to put any effort in it and rather copy/cheat and spend my time in a more productive way'. I can understand why someone might say that, but it would still be immoral and dishonest of them to cheat. When you take a class, you enter into a contract (often an explicit academic honesty policy) to not cheat. If you find the assignm…
For instance, the law must forbid jaywalking, to be able to punish those that jaywalk and endanger themselves or others. However, when I get a red light at four in the morning and I don't see a car for a mile in both directions, then I will jaywalk. If a cop sees me, he should understand that the law wasn't meant to cover that case, even though it does. It's intended to protect people, not to be applied by the letter.
The same holds for the contract you have with a school. It must forbid cheating, to prevent people from harming themselves. That doesn't mean that every individual case of cheating is necessarily immoral. Circumstances and intentions are exactly why we need courts: to interpret the intention of the law in many different cases.
If someone has all the skills necessary to perform a given job, but an employer will not even finish reading their resume because they don't have a BA, I see no reason not to cheat in order to expedite the degree-earning process.
If you want to work with computers for a living, and you have a political science paper due in one day, what is going to be the better use of your time in the long-term, an all-night hack session, or actually doing your politics paper?
Also, I've never cheated, and I'm theorizing, but I think that people bright enough to carry out an A-worthy cheat could get the A if they did the work, and people that can't will either get a B or get caught. So in the end, it might be sort of fair anyway.
I'm not talking about the skills and things you learn, these can be valuable. I'm talking about social order and customs.
I cheat and break rules or laws sometimes but I don't cheat other people in a way it would harm them. I also know that I'm taking risks since there might be consequences.
I have never bought that hard work or going over the highest fence would be beneficial to anyone. I like more working smart, fast or even taking shortcuts by cheating than wasting my time on something that doesn't even matter.
School is a another reality where you are rewarded by the complexity and how hard you work, not by what its the most simplest solution.
I'm a little appalled by the number of people who apparently think cheating is fine. Is integrity so uncommon? As I stated another comment, the problem I have with cheating is that it's dishonest, as you're passing someone else's work off as your own. It demonstrates a lack of respect for the person who did the work, the person you're doing the work for, every student who worked hard enough to do the work themselves,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can perfectly understand people saying 'this assignment/test is ridiculous. I'm not going to put any effort in it and rather copy/cheat and spend my time in a more productive way'. I can understand why someone might say that, but it would still be immoral and dishonest of them to cheat. When you take a class, you enter into a contract (often an explicit academic honesty policy) to not cheat. If you find the assignm…
We have different opinions on what is ethical. Disregarding the terms of a contract, or the law for what that matters, may be perfectly ethical in my book. There is always a difference between the letter of the contract and the intention of the contract. The letter is the same for everyone, but the intention isn't. For instance, the law must forbid jaywalking, to be able to punish those that jaywalk and endanger them…
The same holds for the contract you have with a school. It must forbid cheating, to prevent people from harming themselves.
The primary goal of an academic honesty policy is clearly not "to prevent people from harming themselves."
I guess I'm the first person to say that yes, I did cheat, and no, I don't feel guilty. What matters is getting the right answer. If you stop before you get the right answer, then you're responsible for that. If you take a shortcut to get the right answer, then it's not a bad thing until you get to a situation where you refuse to do what it takes to get the right answer. Given a choice between wasting my time on mean…
Why bother going to school if this is how you view it? I think the problem with cheating is that it's fundamentally dishonest. It's not that you're using someone else's work to accomplish something, as we all do this every day in our jobs, it's that you're lying and presenting that work as your own.
I don't like people who cheat a lot, at that point going to school is becoming useless indeed, but when you don't have enough freedom to choose your subjects or they are taught just to be taught, a bit of cheating eliminates a lot of headaches.
I've been out of school for years now and I don't think cheating on tests in school compares to anything in the "real" world. That is to say, I would never cheat employers or plagiarize code or documentation.
I guess I view school as something you do for yourself and if you really want to cheat yourself out of an education then who cares (especially since you're paying for school in the first place). I never put much stock into degrees and so I'm sure that colors my world view. I can understand that if you do think that degrees and grades actually mean anything then you might feel like cheating in school is unethical. Cheating others is a whole different story and it's a line I really don't like to cross.