Let someone else's fingers do the walking.

In general, our culture has an ambivalent relationship with the concept of Do It Yourself. On the one hand, successful businesspeople have secretaries who do things for them - one of the most prominent signs of success is having simple jobs taken care of for you by someone else. On the other hand, we're taught to express pride in our ability to accomplish tasks by ourselves.

Our educational system doesn't teach us to convince others to do things for us. Quite the opposite. Someone who lets someone else write a term paper, or take an exam, for him or her can expect to be punished. But although this is a culturally accepted norm, it isn't necessarily a logical one. After all, if someone has enough charisma to convince someone else to write a term paper for him or her, the logical conclusion isn't necessarily that the first person hasn't learned the topic and thus shouldn't pass the course. Perhaps just as logical is the conclusion that this person has acquired the necessary social skills in order to produce the requested paper, and fulfill the assignment. A school would probably relate negatively to the fact that the job was accomplished in a manner other than that accepted in educational institutions, but a start-up company might relate to the same behavior quite positively.

Go to: at the click of a mouse button