MrHen comments on Generalizing From One Example - Less Wrong

259 Post author: Yvain 28 April 2009 10:00PM

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Comment author: taw 30 April 2009 07:47:32AM 3 points [-]

It's funny that you asked an inside view question. It was a Polish high school of the supposedly very good kind.

From the outside view, why wouldn't they? Students care about grades, risk of getting caught is tiny, and respect for school among them is really really low.

The only student who wouldn't cheat would be one that: doesn't care about grades/passing at all (but student like that would just fail the school), or is naturally great at everything (but many subjects require plenty of rote memorization, won't work), has unusually high level of respect for the school system (I don't find it terribly likely), or has unusually high level of fear of getting caught.

OK, perhaps more than 5% then, I can see many kids being unreasonably afraid of getting caught.

Comment author: MrHen 30 April 2009 01:16:27PM 5 points [-]

The only student who wouldn't cheat would be one that:

The reason I never cheated was because I thought it was wrong. This has nothing to do with respect for the school system.

The other reason was because I knew it wouldn't help me learn anything. This has more to do with respect for the school system than my previous reason.

Comment author: handoflixue 17 June 2011 01:38:05AM 3 points [-]

I've found that learning how to cheat was one of the more valuable skills I gained from school. Admittedly I work in reverse engineering, so my mindset isn't necessarily entirely standard :)