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I have a confession to make. I cheat at my job. I cheat all day, every day. I have this little book next to my desk I use to write down ideas and notes, and th
by rescripting 10y ago
I have a confession to make. I cheat at my job. I cheat all day, every day.
I have this little book next to my desk I use to write down ideas and notes, and then I refer back to it later. Sometimes my boss is standing right there! I get such a rush.
I found this website called Stack Overflow that has so many answers to problems I run in to. Sometimes I'll just copy the code directly from the site, without typing it out again myself!
Sometimes I even just walk up to colleagues and straight up ask them for help with a problem. They just tell me things I can use in my job, out loud, in a busy office, and we still haven't been caught!
I know that my cheating gives me an unfair advantage in the job market. I know this cheating makes me an inferior programmer. And now I know I can never work at Amazon because I can't get past their super scrupulous interview process. Oh well, I guess I'll just try and get by, cheating my way though life.
- Raed667 10y agoToday I used "man" to check some parameters of a command. I felt such a rush knowing that I cheated the system.
- verandaguy 10y agoI think I know what you mean. I had to run a few commands using the `--help` flag this morning to look up features that I wasn't sure they could do. It just feels so _dirty_.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 10y agoAt least we know now that we can't be counting on you in situations of dire need - like https://xkcd.com/1168/ https://xkcd.com/1168/.
- fauria 10y agoIf you want to cheat a little more you can try tldr: https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr/ https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr/ It gives actual examples of commands, just like a cheatsheet does.
- bitwize 10y agoStick it to the, er, authorities!
- connor4312 10y ago> Sometimes I'll just copy the code directly from the site, without typing it out again myself! I realize you're being facetious, but do check with your employer that this is OK! Code on StackOverflow is under a CC-SA license, it isn't public domain or even very permissibly licensed.
- gokhan 10y agoI was like "can't be true" but it seems you're right: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12527/do-i-have-to-worry-about-copyright-issues-for-code-posted-on-stack-overflow http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12527/do-i-have-to-w... The license [1] says that you are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit... ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. [1] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?
- nommm-nommm 10y agoBut usually, code on SO is kinda like the docs, they show you how to do something and is often more of a template than a complete solution (unless you asked the question). Its not like people are writing complex solutions and putting them on SO. I mean how are you going to copyright this? (taken from a SO post): for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : map.entrySet()) { String key = entry.getKey(); Object value = entry.getValue(); }
- mherdeg 10y agoOr, famously (in a case where people thought carefully about both copyright and patents): private static void rangeCheck(int arrayLen, int fromIndex, int toIndex) { if (fromIndex > toIndex) throw new IllegalArgumentException("fromIndex(" + fromIndex + ") > toIndex(" + toIndex+")"); if (fromIndex < 0) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(fromIndex); if (toIndex > arrayLen) throw new ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException(toIndex); }
- zdean 10y agoKen Robinson on collaboration in education: "In the work world, collaboration and team work are essential to success; in school, it's called cheating." More here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
- threatofrain 10y agoWell what a lot of children do in school is indeed cheating outside of collaboration. It's often one person who's already done doing the work of another without much bidirectional creative synthesis. I would think that students who collaborate on schoolwork or studying are very institutionally fluent and aren't really at risk of the institution stepping over them and calling them cheaters. I see the college cheating industry as a trade between wealthier cooler kids and the smarter disadvantaged kids, which I suppose is also life in most places, China or US.
- nol13 10y agoWhat a lot of adults do at work is also indeed cheating outside of collaboration.
- jmcdiesel 10y agoWell, cheating is only to be expected in a system that puts a score/grade on the pedestal. The point of school (American school, at least) isnt to learn, its to get a good grade. When the goal is a number, than 'cheating' is simply trying to achieve the goal. If the goal was to actually learn, the "cheating" that you see in schools would become "collaboration" - much like in a workplace with quotas and ridiculous metrics, people will cheat the system - in a workplace who values output quality first, you end up with collaboration between employees to reach that goal... The problem is - 90% of us went through the school indoctrination of "the grade is the goal" ... and carry a lot of that mentality out into the work force.. and at worse, many of them start companies and align their business goals for their employees with that same standard..
- digi_owl 10y ago
- newscracker 10y ago> I found this website called Stack Overflow You missed the part where a search engine shows you several links, including the ones from Stack Overflow.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoGP might be cheating, but not that hard.
- clifanatic 10y ago> shows you several links, including the ones from Stack Overflow. And all of the stack overflow answers that were linked from the top of the google search are "Have you ever heard of Google, N00B?"
- wolfgang42 10y agoSimilar to your little book, I have a personal wiki in a Git repository which basically functions for me as an external memory--if I find a solution to a problem that keeps coming up, or write a particularly useful snippet of code, I put it on the appropriate page so I can remember it again later. (When I say 'external memory' I really mean it--in addition to pages like Snippets:Bash I also have things like LifeSkills:SuitcasePackingList.) Something that worries me is: what if I work for a company that decides that everything I've written on their time belongs to them? If I had all of this in my head there would be no question about it, but writing it down introduces questions of copyright. Should this ever happen it would basically be the equivalent of losing a chunk of my brain, which is a bit of an alarming prospect.
- Arandur 10y agoI work for a company that decides that everything I've written belongs to them. Note that I did not include the phrase "on their time." I have to get explicit waivers for any project I want to work on on my own time. It is more than a little disconcerting. I'm pretty sure they technically claim ownership of this comment.
- uiri 10y agoJust because they make that claim does not make it true or even enforceable. Generally anything you write on company time or using company equipment belongs to them though.
- robin_reala 10y agoDid you not query that clause in the contract?
- barrkel 10y agoIn my first developer job out of college, I queried that clause, and they basically said the job was conditional on accepting the clause.
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- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pklausler 10y agoI get that you're being facetious, but just to take you seriously for a moment: if the help that you're asking your coworkers for is something like "tell me again how pointers work in a linked list", there's a problem.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- daenney 10y agoWhy? Maybe they didn't understand it when that coworker explained it the first time around.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago...Because if the coworker had to explain it the first time, you probably aren't qualified. Depending on the job, of course.
- iamben 10y agoReminds me of this post a while back... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11700640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11700640 "Am I really a developer or just a good Googler?"
- squeaky-clean 10y agoHey, don't let too many people know this, but nowadays you often don't even need to copy/paste the code! For example, I have to parse Excel files a lot in my work. Did you know some dummies have already written and tested a bunch of code that does exactly that? And then they place it online in a format that's easy for me to download! I really hope they don't realize that I'm using their code to cheat.
- tzakrajs 10y agoWelcome to the club! No shame to be had here. Freedom and responsibility.
- RandomOpinion 10y ago>"I found this website called Stack Overflow that has so many answers to problems I run in to. Sometimes I'll just copy the code directly from the site, without typing it out again myself! Sometimes I even just walk up to colleagues and straight up ask them for help with a problem. They just tell me things I can use in my job, out loud, in a busy office, and we still haven't been caught!" I've lost count of the number of (thankfully former) co-workers whose only technical skills were searching Stack Overflow and asking their colleagues for help with a problem. The measure of a programmer is what they are able to do when there _is_ no answer to be had from SO or their colleagues.
- russgray 10y agoSomething not being on SO is normally my first indicator that I've stumbled upon something interesting. I consider it a good thing.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI hope you contribute the questions and answer to SO then! Rising tide lifts all boats!
- rocqua 10y agoNo, the measure of a programmer is the change in productivity a company suffers were the programmer to leave.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- nop80 10y agoSome programmers work on bespoke algorithms and would do well to listen to the relevant commentators in regards to best practice. Not to mention that trusting everything you are taught can severely stunt your ability - read people's experiences and results.
- sh87 10y agoI don't think there is an accurate measure of programming skill. Experience, diversity, challenges faced, skillfully using solutions to past problems, effective communication, reaching out for help when needed (including StackOverflow) are qualities that I can think of from a programmer that I would pay to build my product. I work / have worked with co-workers that you are trying to point out but use of StackOverflow was not my measure.
- ErrantX 10y agoWe specifically have an interview question here which is: "How would you feel about asking for help, either from a colleague, friend or on the internet, to complete a work project?" (pro tip; the correct answer is, "fine")
- berserkpi 10y agoI'm also a big time cheater. :)