The cheat sheet
Once upon a time I enjoyed watching sports and in 1988, watched Carl Lewis in one of the most memorable races of all time. A race where he lost. I remember his face when they showed the replay as he glanced across the lanes in disbelief as Ben Johnson with his finger raised to the sky crossed the finish line, a few metres ahead. An era had ended.
Of course, not too long after it was discovered that Ben Johnson had more steroids in him than the chicken at a KFC. I remember my slightly older brother saying at the time. "He cheated but just think, no one in the world has ever run that fast before". Is that why Johnson did it?
Cheating is an interesting concept really and even more so when it is cheating to win. I, like many people, have cheated before and the reason was to pass a course at university that I didn't have time to perform the practical exercise. I wrote the report myself, it was just all fiction. That was an ethics class some 20 years ago. The worst thing was that I topped the class with that report and I felt ashamed at my own behavior. If I had got a middle grade, would I have felt the same?
It is an interesting question I think as I probably wouldn't have felt as lousy with a B or C grade but considering I took the top position it felt worse. The top position rightfully belonged to someone else and I had robbed them of it. That is the only time I remember cheating and although relatively insignificant now, it is something I have to live with.
I used to game a lot around the same time and I hated the cheating, hacking and glitching in games. Even on solo games I wouldn't dream of using a cheat code to get me through some difficulty as to do so would mean that any accomplishment wouldn't be mine. But, this of course doesn't seem to be a controlling factor for many online, they have their own personal ethics.
Just like Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, we have a hierarchy of moral positions where depending on the circumstances, a white lie or a stolen office pen doesn't classify as cheating the system. Some people pride themselves on their ability to find loopholes in systems without crossing the legal/social boundaries. Lawyers and good accountants. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that per se but, are those types of people more prone to cheating in other aspects of life or when conditions change?
Perhaps, with my example from university, getting a B or C wouldn't have crossed my boundary conditions, it would have been acceptable considering the circumstances but, the top grade crossed over into an area where it was no longer acceptable, my limits had been crossed.
It makes me wonder what happens if we could overlay our ethical hierarchies over each other would we find similarities or differences. What would we find on various behaviors if we could look at the moral profiles of each user here. I wonder if there would be predictable patterns of behavior based on their ethical disposition.
For example, if we could get a moral profile of a user running phishing scams, what would be the similarities and differences to other types of users? Would their be a lot of overlap between a bidbot user, a community leader, a circlejerk member, a project owner, content creator, plagiarist and all the other types of users and possible mixes? Of course, this is impossible to do accurately but there does seem to be similarities and overlaps between various groups.
Personally, I would one day love to really have significant stake here for a whole host of reasons. It would be great if that reality could come about but, what am I willing to do to get there? Well, I don't mind upvoting my content but, would I post 10 times a day and only upvote my content? I don't think so. Or at least, I would have to be in a pretty bad financial position in the real world to do so. Even if I could justify it, how would it make me feel?
Well, if I was forced by negative life situations I would have to suck it up and do it but, if I was a very high earner with a large wallet and was guaranteed to get large votes and support from others, would I still be able to justify posting and self-voting 10 times a day? What about vote trading on nothing content or something like that?
I wonder if it was possible to see the profiles how much difference there would be in moral positioning between the smallest scammers and the largest? I think there might be some overlaps but, I also think that the motivation would be somewhat different too. The smallest scammers might be doing it because they see no other choice (true or not) but for the ones that are already highly rewarded with fat wallets?
Many of the old torrent crowd I used to know are now above-board subscribers to services that provide the content. When they were struggling students, they could justify the risk and the moral position but as professionals who can now afford it, they can no longer justify it. However, I do know some who no matter their financial wealth, will still only pirate material. That is just an example topic but I think you can imagine others too.
For some, they lie, cheat and steal because they feel they must and for others, they lie, cheat and steal because they enjoy it or perhaps, it is just in their nature.
I don't think that once a cheater, always a cheater is the case at all unless the cheat does not learn, does not mature and instead remains ignorant of the harm they may cause. Even to the harm they do themselves. For me, the feeling I got when I topped that class was enough of a lesson to not only not do it again, but to spend a great deal of time thinking through my own morals, ethics and potential to improve various aspects of life. There is no teacher as good as experience as they say.
But, it seems that for some people, no matter the signposts, the call-outs, the warnings, the near-misses and being caught in the act; at the very next opportunity they are right back to their personal average ways. I wonder if it is from a lack of moral maturity or are they just so emotionally compelled they become slaves to the process?
I don't know, but I think that it is interesting to watch all of the various behaviors (including my own) and seeing how each little mouse runs the maze of this thing we call life. I wonder for those who have 'made it' by cheating, stealing and harming others, do they feel accomplished and like winners or, do they have regrets?
Maybe they feel nothing or perhaps it makes them feel good.
Some late night Saturday thoughts.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
For me, cheating is cheating. What is the motive behind that act differs on everybody. The motive defines the action. There are dishonest people in this world. And nobody is perfect. We just got to be cautious on who we give our trust.
trust is not given I think. Trust is in one's own judgement. If trust is 'broken' it is a failure of judgement of the other person, not their change in behaviour.
It speaks volumes that even at this remove, you still feel ashamed of your one instance of cheating.
I can't say I've ever cheated, perhaps through lack of opportunity, but if winning brings a sense of achievement, cheating negates it, so what's the point?
Unfortunately for some, morality has been replaced by expediency. Winning is the end and the means matter not.
It is interesting how much effect relatively small events can have on our life and how for some at least, very large events don't seem to influence them at all.
I still pay for cable even though I haven't watched TV in years and what I do watch comes from the above mentioned alternative sources. What does make me?
On the other hand, living in a system that cheats you on a regular basis, a world where many crooks are regarded as upstanding citizens what can you expect of ordinary citizens?
this is the problem in the world, the 'role models' are among the worst. The people we have been trained to look up to are not worthy. Sometimes I also think that we exaggerate how bad they are too. I personally know some politicians who are as far as I can see, are decent people working their best. The newspapers don't portray them as such though. Yet, I know some others who are as you'd expect but, the newspapers may support them heavily. Lots of scams running in this world.
I think it would actually slow down your growth if you only upvoted your own content instead of devoting only about 40% of your SP to voting yourself. A lot of people commenting on your posts would go somewhere else and stop upvoting you. 69% of your votes come from others and if you already upvote all of your own posts (not comments) at 100% power, losing your supporters would be a heavy blow.
An added benefit to receiving support from others is that if circumstances forced you to power down and sell your SP for fiat, you could rely on others to bring you up after the crisis. Nobody will help those who only upvote themselves if something like that happens.
It is in your rational self-interest to support others and build a community. The rest of the world is no different except that on Steem your support of others doesn't even come from your own pocket but the community pool. The only cost incurred by you is a relatively small amount of your time spent skimming through your comment section and mouse-clicking at a minimum to weed out spam and reward honest effort. To refuse to do even that speaks volumes about that person's tendencies to act in situations where reciprocity involves actual effort.
It only works if you are part of a circle of upvoters who condone it. assholes.
The whole purpose of being a part of any community is risk management and the ability to tackle issues much larger than one can handle alone.
Indeed. There is nothing wrong with being 'community self-centered' where everyone can benefit. The issue is when people want a lot more than anyone else. Even many of the smallest accounts are acting like dictators. It is a societal problem perhaps where we have incentivised maximising behaviours for the individual.
Does it even then? Even a circle jerk operation is an example of collaborative effort, except that the point of a circle jerk is that there need not be any honest effort or quality control at all. :)
Exactly.
Yes, the narrow-minded quest for status. The problem could be with those individuals and how they've been brought up. It helps to remember that even the status-seeker can benefit from not doing it in a too narrowly focused manner. For example, acting like a model communitarian in one context may help build resources to be used for status maximization in another. In modern life, we have an opportunity to operate in a number of unrelated contexts. The best part of modern living is usually having the opportunity to exit those contexts that have become oppressive.
Well there always has been cheating and there always will be cheating and it gets worse in 2 occasions. 1 when there is money involved and 2 when there is power involved.
I really was hoping that you would stick with sports, one of my passions. My answer there would have been that I don’t approve doping but that I do assume that everybody was using it and was fighting with the same weapons.
But suddenly the post shifted to some whale abuse of the reward pool. Well you are spot on. Here we don’t find with he same weapons, but we could, if we were rich enough!
And yes, I am against it, yes I hate it too and no I wouldn’t so it myself!
The reason why people are doing this is because there is money involved and because they can!
The difference between cheating here or on other places, is that in the steem blockchain you can’t hide! You have to do it in plain sight, which does make it a great psychological experiment!
Hope that you will make it to whale status because that would mean that with quality post and engagement you can make it to the top without cheating!
I think some people here just assume they will never actually be caught as they are somewhat anonymous. If this does take off and they really do become Very wealthy, they won't be able to maintain their anonymity for long I think.
I think many in the land of crypto delusion are geared toward easy paths which also seems to go hand in hand with corner cutting.
Cheating. You cheated lol. Just kidding. We have all done it at school.. Sport is somewhat different. I would rather lose knowing I didn't cheat. There was one occasion playing semi professional rugby (before pay but was getting paid lol). We were losing and had a final scrum before the whistle. I was annoyed at the opposing hooker and threw a punch at him. Which is quite difficult as you have to get the angles right. It missed and I hit my own hooker. He had a cut and was bleeding. The referee blew for a penalty for foul play and we won. The ref had no idea that his own player punched him. I kept quiet but confessed to the guy I hit in the changing rooms afterwards. To me I didn't feel bad about winning like that . Just luck. Some days it goes against you.
Doping though is a no no in my book. Today you can see who the steroid babies are just by their injuries. Common one is a torn bicep. That is a whole new story though.
yeah, I have done many, many things... ;)
Being Australian, cheating used to be frowned upon heavily but from what I hear with the cricket, it is now accepted and supported. Disappointing. When it comes to doping, it is impossible to know who is clean or not with 100% accuracy so I am on the fence. Yeah, I would rather see all clean but there is no guarantee. The Australian swim team used to dominate and now they are getting smashed at the world level (commonwealth games don't count). I wonder how long it will be until they are caught.
Unfortunately, no one is happy unless they win. Doing your best and losing just makes you a loser these days. Sure, it might be a moral win but sponsors don't care for morality, nether do crowds.
Would love to see a race with dopers just to see how fast they could run. Don't think there are that many athletes left who haven't had some sort of added help in their careers. Every year the Tour de France has some controversy. Maybe they need to start allowing less harmful substances on the ok your clean list.
Regarding the cricket. It was dumb and obvious but it has been happening for years. Sand paper though was taking it a bit far.
I don't even know what they did. I don't watch TV, read the news, watch sport. Read my brother's blog. =)
They had a small piece of sandpaper. They used it to rough the one side of the ball so you get reverse swing. Batsmen struggle against reverse swing because it normally swings with the shiny side. If you in balance the ball by roughing one side up it does the opposite.
Sad really that people in this world have become so pathetic that they think doing such things is winning.
The drive to win isn't helped by the people around the potential winner. There is huge pressure and reward from coaches on the side of those with potential. My daughter does gymnastics and if you're not a potential for winning or making the state team (which is most of them) then you are designated to being ignored while watching those with more potential getting the attention and the privilege of getting away with what others can't.
From the point of view of a sports club, having athletes who do well brings attention to the club and more potential income and prestige (the reward). So you can see the pattern in why they do it. However, this probably manifests on the athlete. The pressure to win so they don't disappoint the coaches and club then get relegated to being ignored and unprivileged.
The competition and drive to win starts very early. I see competition in a different way, it isn't about beating others or being the best, it is about exploring what is that best. This of course mean that it doesn't matter who wins, all play a part in the development process. The problem is that the incentive model does not reward this way, they reward the person who is the best, not those that helped them get there.
Very true. I was recently reading an article about how someone is famed for climbing to Everest's peak twice and, even better, without oxygen. Which is officially a record. Except that there are a couple of sherpas who have done this 21 times whilst carrying the gear needed by the 'paying' climbers who'll get all the fame for it. At the end of the season, the sherpas are the ones who'll also make a round trip back to the camps to collect all the gear. Admittedly these guys are genetically built for this in a way we're not, but it's still no mean feat.
What about people who cheat just for the thrill or rush. I've seen people worth millions get busted for shoplifting. Is this a sickness or just never satisfied with the normal life experience? BTW I get my thrill when that red and white bobber starts to bounch around in a farm pond.
I have too. It is interesting isn't it? Perhaps they are addicted to the gain.
To cheat in order to enrich oneself in any way , I have no use for that type of individual . Or people who manipulate the truth for their gain .
I have pushed the envelope so far as not to break it in order to get the desired outcome , but never for personal gain .
The Fireman who breaks the windows in an expensive car runs his hose thru to get to the fire hydrant .
The CEO who sells his shares just before his company gets hit with a lawsuit .
The plagiarism thats goes on here on this platform .
We can justify some cheating but to what degree . The line keeps moving depending on which way the wind is blowing . Everyone has cheated in some form or another , and I mean everyone . So the question comes down to , where do you draw the line . Can there be a line drawn ?
I think lines can be drawn but it really does come down to the individual level and with many individuals only wanting to win no matter the cost and driven by peer pressure to do so, I only see a ramping up of poor behaviour. Self-reflection, a necessary component of individual freedom, is dead.
I had to laugh at the idea of cheating in an ethics class! It does make you wonder, though, had you not had that experience would you have quite the same moral stance you have today?
If we look at the animal kingdom, what's done is for survival and morality wouldn't even be a concept. If the tactic is successful, then it why would it be seen as wrong? As people, we are supposed to have the intelligence to rise above base instinct, but what if some people aren't capable of seeing something wrong in cheating?
I would say no unless there was another lesson that taught similarly.
Maybe in time, natural selection will weed them out. It could be a development of the prefrontal cortex but due to its relative infancy, it is not yet strong enough to override base instinct.
Hmm, food for thought. I wonder if that could be tested...
Sometimes a moral decay take us to a point where the system rewards the cheaters. Where I live is common to hear people bragging of how they bent or broke the rules and got away with it. The authorities are part of it, they now and demand to get paid to look away. In this moral and legal decay, it's very hard to keep following the right path and you have to start questioning your moral compass, as you said, sometimes the lines are blurry and you can accept to bent the line a little, as lomg as you won't hurt anyone.
One of the first examples I had to learn the hard way is the traffic lights at night. In a city with high crime rates you never stop at the traffic light because there is a risk of being robbed. So you also question the rules in the light of other values (preserving life and property, for instance).
There are definitely instances where lie, cheat and steal are recommended but they are almost (as i can see) exclusively as a protection mechanism for like you said, bad behaviour of others. I would happily lie to a Nazi officer about Anne Frank living in my attic. Again though, this would comedown to moral hierarchies.