Comments on: How things change: Cheaters are Innovators http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2009/09/14/how-things-change-cheaters-are-innovators/ Computer Scientist and Open Scholar: Databases, Information Retrieval, Business Intelligence. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:33:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Evan Meagher http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2009/09/14/how-things-change-cheaters-are-innovators/comment-page-1/#comment-51509 Evan Meagher Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:25:34 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/?p=2206#comment-51509 Thanks for the link to the von Neumann article. It's a nice complement to what I've been reading out of MIT Press' "A History of Modern Computing". Thanks for the link to the von Neumann article. It’s a nice complement to what I’ve been reading out of MIT Press’ “A History of Modern Computing”.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2009/09/14/how-things-change-cheaters-are-innovators/comment-page-1/#comment-51507 Anonymous Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:54:37 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/?p=2206#comment-51507 The problem with this argument is that cheating isn't just a good way to do innovative work. When you can get away with it, cheating is always the most efficient way to accomplish your goals, regardless of what your goals are. For every noble innovator, struggling to make the world a better place, there are a thousand jerks trying to abuse the system to further their own interests. The reason people discourage cheating isn't because they fear change and want to suppress it. Rather, it's because they've seen what almost all of the cheaters want and they recognize that it's good for nobody except the cheaters. Of course, if you're von Neumann, you can use your power to force things to happen your way without needing to justify them or convince anybody. I'm glad he was able to contribute to the early years of computer science, but I've seen other eminent scientists abuse their power. The moral of this story is that if you want to accomplish your goals, by all means step outside the old system and make it irrelevant. However, if you see someone else trying to do the same thing, you'll likely be doing the world a favor if you stop them. The problem with this argument is that cheating isn’t just a good way to do innovative work. When you can get away with it, cheating is always the most efficient way to accomplish your goals, regardless of what your goals are.

For every noble innovator, struggling to make the world a better place, there are a thousand jerks trying to abuse the system to further their own interests. The reason people discourage cheating isn’t because they fear change and want to suppress it. Rather, it’s because they’ve seen what almost all of the cheaters want and they recognize that it’s good for nobody except the cheaters.

Of course, if you’re von Neumann, you can use your power to force things to happen your way without needing to justify them or convince anybody. I’m glad he was able to contribute to the early years of computer science, but I’ve seen other eminent scientists abuse their power.

The moral of this story is that if you want to accomplish your goals, by all means step outside the old system and make it irrelevant. However, if you see someone else trying to do the same thing, you’ll likely be doing the world a favor if you stop them.

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