I've made it a principle to live my life according to certain ideals - one of which is not to play these games/tricks.

I'm doing better than fine.

Have others who cheated done better than me? Sure - some have. Why should I care? I'm a high income earner and I don't need an even wealthier life.

I am not at all an outlier. If you're amongst a crowd that won't value you for not cheating, it's on you to change the crowd you hang out with.

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drivebyhooting an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Do you have children?

I do. I still subscribe to your ideals or at least mostly follow them. But for lack of playing such games, I saw my children’s opportunities slip away.

	▲	BeetleB an hour ago \| parent [-]
		My kids are not that old, so it hasn't come to a head yet. I presume you're talking about school performance - particularly closer to high school? At the same time, we may need to adjust our baseline on what we call "opportunities". I've lived in other countries, and one of the nice things about the US is how uncompetitive school is. One could (and likely still can) get into a decent "average" university without much difficulty. In other countries, not so. You could be in the top 10% academically and end up in a really low quality university. I would understand playing such games there.

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OGEnthusiast an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

If you don't mind sharing, which country do you live in? I'd imagine the ability to play fairly and still get ahead varies a lot based on local cultures/norms.

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BeetleB an hour ago | parent [-]

The US.

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OGEnthusiast 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

Interesting. I'm glad it worked it for you, but unfortunately that's very different from what my personal/anecdotal experience with America has taught me.

	▲	BeetleB 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I think one has to be a bit careful in picking one's goals and priorities. I'm not saying "going the straight path" will lead to success in all endeavors (likely not at Wall Street, for example). In my case, it so happened that the goals I was pursuing (e.g. job in tech industry) had lots of opportunities that didn't involve playing many games. I think it's still the case today. But if your goal is "I have to go to an elite university, and become a senior exec at a FAANG", then my way may not work out. The one variable that's hard to control, though, is how things are growing up (childhood/teen years). You can't control these - your parents/school do. If you grew up in an unfair environment and had poor parents, you may have to play those games. My point is that once you get past those stages, you don't have to convince yourself that you need to continue playing those games.