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I don't want to take the time to build it, so here's a silly programming project for an afternoon: Build a bot that can simulate an open source genius via a cl

I don't want to take the time to build it, so here's a silly programming project for an afternoon: Build a bot that can simulate an open source genius via a classic academic technique: Plagiarism. The algorithm: Use Github's API and/or Google to find some popular repos. Fork those repos into a new Github account named (e.g.) "Nicolai". For each repo, find some other forks of that repo. Grab some branch names and commits from those forks and commit them to Nicolai's fork, under Nicolai's name and with a few Nicolai-specific changes here and there, to commit messages and perhaps to code comments, to obscure the trail. Sprinkle in some choice text from, e.g., Zippy the Pinhead, the Tao te Ching, random comments from Stack Overflow or Lambda the Ultimate... whatever. Scoring: For every recruiter who emails Nicolai with an opportunity: one point. For every interview that Nicolai gets offered: ten points. For every job offer that Nicolai gets: one thousand points.

cbo 15y ago
Building this bot should get a job for the right person. It's not only a coding project in its own right, but it's also a very clever form of lateral thinking that shows a certain cheekiness and savvy that can be appreciated by plenty of businesses out there. The trick is that you have to make sure you're not hiring for any of their plagiarized projects. What if they plagiarized the bot itself?
marakfires 15y ago
I fail to see how that is any different from someone lying on their resume. If the hiring manager is too stupid to be able to detect the person is lying about their skill level after a 15 minute conversation, caveat emptor.
- evilduck 15y ago
  Lying on your resume is an explicit attempt to deceive a prospective employer. Lying on Github (and then presumably not using it on an actual job application), you're only fooling those who are willing to be fooled. If someone is going to scrape data off the web about people and evaluate it for prospective candidates, the burden of separating the signal from the noise is on them, the internet is full of bullshit. You're obviously mucking with their process, but you didn't ask to be included in it either. No different than assuming all the content on blogs isn't plagiarized and then trying to use that to proposition people to be authors.
- mechanical_fish 15y ago
  Oh, I think plagiarism is less ethical than lying on one's resume. ;) Unless, of course, it is done by a fictional character as part of poking fun at people who insist on reading other people's personality traits from their Github accounts. Because, to the extent that this amusing exercise has a point, it is that your Github account is not a resume; it may just be a miscellaneous collection of code that you find useful, none of which is necessarily yours. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's Github's design. You should feel free to use Github as a tool, not as an advertisement for yourself. And if you insist on pretending that the contents of someone's Github account, bookshelf, or sock drawer is necessarily some kind of representative sample of their character or skill, you deserve to get punked. A person who is lying on their resume has set out to lie to you. A person with a nonrepresentative Github repo is merely guilty of misleading the stranger who is looking over their shoulder.
neduma 15y ago
To make it more interesting, feed the bot 'profanity' list for git commits.. http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-git-commit-messages-per-programming-language/ http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-git-c...
lanstein 15y ago
This sounds scarily like what happens to my projects :-/
wisty 15y ago
Surely building the bot would prove a certain proficiency. (I think they train educators to say this.)
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  Yes, but a lot less than would be required to code the things that are actually being stolen. That's the art of plagarism - knowing enough to steal well.
dblock 15y ago
I hope Nicolai also has some amazing blog posts on his blog too.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- w1ntermute 15y ago
  And some witty one-liners on Twitter.

cbo 15y ago

Building this bot should get a job for the right person. It's not only a coding project in its own right, but it's also a very clever form of lateral thinking that shows a certain cheekiness and savvy that can be appreciated by plenty of businesses out there. The trick is that you have to make sure you're not hiring for any of their plagiarized projects. What if they plagiarized the bot itself?

marakfires 15y ago

I fail to see how that is any different from someone lying on their resume. If the hiring manager is too stupid to be able to detect the person is lying about their skill level after a 15 minute conversation, caveat emptor.

evilduck 15y ago
Lying on your resume is an explicit attempt to deceive a prospective employer. Lying on Github (and then presumably not using it on an actual job application), you're only fooling those who are willing to be fooled. If someone is going to scrape data off the web about people and evaluate it for prospective candidates, the burden of separating the signal from the noise is on them, the internet is full of bullshit. You're obviously mucking with their process, but you didn't ask to be included in it either. No different than assuming all the content on blogs isn't plagiarized and then trying to use that to proposition people to be authors.
mechanical_fish 15y ago
Oh, I think plagiarism is less ethical than lying on one's resume. ;) Unless, of course, it is done by a fictional character as part of poking fun at people who insist on reading other people's personality traits from their Github accounts. Because, to the extent that this amusing exercise has a point, it is that your Github account is not a resume; it may just be a miscellaneous collection of code that you find useful, none of which is necessarily yours. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's Github's design. You should feel free to use Github as a tool, not as an advertisement for yourself. And if you insist on pretending that the contents of someone's Github account, bookshelf, or sock drawer is necessarily some kind of representative sample of their character or skill, you deserve to get punked. A person who is lying on their resume has set out to lie to you. A person with a nonrepresentative Github repo is merely guilty of misleading the stranger who is looking over their shoulder.

neduma 15y ago

To make it more interesting, feed the bot 'profanity' list for git commits.. http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-git-commit-messages-per-programming-language/ http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-git-c...

lanstein 15y ago

This sounds scarily like what happens to my projects :-/

wisty 15y ago

Surely building the bot would prove a certain proficiency. (I think they train educators to say this.)

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Yes, but a lot less than would be required to code the things that are actually being stolen. That's the art of plagarism - knowing enough to steal well.

dblock 15y ago

I hope Nicolai also has some amazing blog posts on his blog too.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
w1ntermute 15y ago
And some witty one-liners on Twitter.