Confessions of a cheater

The blogster cheated in college.

If yours truly were to go into politics or someone wanted to destroy a career, this would be the perfect quote, wouldn't it?

So, what did the blogster do to undermine an education system where intelligence and hard work are turned into degrees, which then turn into nice careers?

The blogster wrote a paper for a girlfriend. She was going to be a teacher and needed to write a five or six page paper about how technology could support teaching in the classroom. She was frightened, so the blogster wrote the paper (passed). The blogster and the girlfriend split up, but she probably did become a teacher.

Another girl friend needed to write a movie review about, of all bad movies, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The professor had told the class to be creative and declared that the best review would win a bottle of champagne.
The girlfriend wrote a review like a Cliff note. Middle of the road, for those readers who are not familiar with Cliff notes.
Do you just want to pass or do you want to go for the champagne?
The blogster edited it, and the girlfriend came home with a grin: won the champagne.
Oh, she was invited by the teacher, they drank the champagne, the blogster never got a drop.

Later, for another panicking girlfriend, the blogster wrote a paper on an 18th century philosopher, you know, the really full of themselves, pompous kind who didn't have much to say but said it in 300 pages or more.

That's it for the cheating.

The blogster never cheated for himself, neither in college nor later at work.

Why not?

Fear of negative consequences? Fear of getting caught? Belief in being just and upstanding?

None of it. The true reason: selfishness. To be able to look at that piece of life defining paper and say: all mine, warts and all. To be able to look his boss in the eye, knowing just how the boss made that last step on the career ladder, and to tell him: this is what needs to be done for the customer.

But then, the blogster never really worked in high school either. One day, an exasperated teacher barked at him: What, do you think you'll just soak it all up like that?
The blogster kept mum and kept a very straight face, thinking "that's exactly how it works".
A word of caution: quite a bit later in life, you will have to start using notepads. 

As a Mythbusters fan, the blogster needs to add: Don't try this at home.
Life seems to be kinder to those who know when to apply a bit of leveraged career assistance, right Mr. D, Mr. Z.?

Since we have been playing the role of Facebook help desk, feel free if you have something to share that is unrelated to the FBook.