Cheating in computer science

See comment section for refelction.  

Well that was a rush of introspection back to high school...

Uni feels like it was a lot different, maybe it was just my approach to it, but in high school it was a competition to see how high you could be ranked. I recall "needing" to take "off campus P.E." and knowing that because it wasn't an advance placement course I wouldn't get the 1.0 boost in GPA and with 4 of those it would drag down the final tally. I guess I accepted that then as okay and good enough because sport was just that important. Whoa, holy digression batman... back to competetive GPA-ing... In retrospect I dont feel it was as much external competition as it was internal and I'd be lying if I said I was more focused on learning the content then I was on accomplishing a grade and that has to be seen as a massive short coming on the part of the environment that either I created and subjected myself to or the AP program at our school created. Maybe that's what the difference to college was. High School felt ethereal in its ability to directly apply any of that knowledge (i get it, building blocks... but still), whereas Uni you could see just over the next hill to the promised land where you were going to really use that knowledge (sorta but not fully there). I still competed for grades in Uni but also with an eye towards the digesting of material. Still far from perfect but the spectrum was shifting. Compare those two experiences with that of the massive self taught endeavour I undertook to learn endurance exercise physiology in the absence of any classroom or grading system. In this shift to the other side of the spectrum the results of my learning were not arbitrary grades but the tangible real world results of my athletes. You can't cheat at that.

An aside... not sure how to comment on the idea that the structure of education is supposed to be a proxy for teaching morals. I was about as straight an arrow as they come and feared my own subconscious should I cheat. It had nothing to do with getting a better grade or collaborating and learning the material better, but just living with myself within the social construct that had been artificially created ("cheating is wrong, dont do it" that alone was enough to keep me from doing it). I get that collaboration is not cheating yet still have difficulty reaching out and asking for help. Getting better about that tho.

As I progress from HS, to Uni, to self taught, to Turing I'm better able to appreciate the content than the grade. Application is everything. I remember thinking shortly after graduating Uni, in a critique of my own skills at the time, that I could care less if the guy/gal that I work for (thinking I-banking here, never went that route tho) had a degree in finance or even what their grades were, rather did they do a good job? This leads me to a little rant about the certified coaching programs run by USA-Triathlon. It's a fucking weekend. You can't teach shit in a weekend, and then these people waltz about with "certified USAT coach" on them like suddenly they have been imbued with great knowledge. Nice, go write 30 plans a week for 5 years and get back to me at the end of those 5 years and let me know if anything you learned at that one weekend is still with you. I'll be stacks of benjamins slim to nothing is the answer. As a retort to those with signatures stating themselves a USAT certified coach I proudly appended a results-certified coach tag to my emails.

Tying that back in to Turing I know that my time here is only step one. When I leave there is still a LOT (<-- can't make that big enough) more learning to be accomplished. And like when i was in the early days of learning ex-phys, I'll keep my head down, listen, ask questions, and absorb.

"i ka nana no a 'ike" - "by observing one learns"
-Hawaiian Proverb

okay... sum up. Had enough tangents yet? Are you even still here??? ;)

I'd have to agree with the author, absorption of the knowledge should be the goal, not some arbitrary construct of can you autodidact. Hat tip to Mike for at some point saying.... paraphrasing... "go out and look at other code and how people made it work, but make sure that you internalize it and should it all be deleted you could write it back all over again." Don't copy, learn.

I'd have to think that if I'd had more content focus work in HS and Uni that i'd have been better prepared adjusted for using that knowledge than when i was more focused on the grade than content.