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When did cutting corners pay off for you?

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OVerLoRDI

Diamond Member
While I was at work I was thinking about cutting corners (I mostly mow lawns this summer. summer job for noobs TridenT....) and times where it has paid off. The examples I came up with are mostly pretty innocent.

1. In 9th grade I had an English class with a close friend. We were assigned to read A Tale of Two Cities. Being the aspiring academic that I was I read, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times" and decided that Diablo 2 and Halo were more important. My friend on the other hand read the entire book cover and cover and discussed it with his english teacher of a father. The day before the test he turns to me and smugly asks, "so did you read the book?" "Nope, I did beat hell mode last night though". He laughs and says I'm screwed. That night I run to the local book store pick up the cliff notes and read it cover to cover. Went to school the next day took the test (it was multiple choice) and got 48/50. My friend who did it the honorable way received at 42/50. To this day he is slightly miffed when I bring it up 😀

2. Again in 9th grade. I was in a biology class with the same friend. We were assigned a long term group project where we had to study a plant or insects/animals and live in a garden. I partnered up with another friend Greg and we both procrastinated and played video games. Meanwhile the original friend painstakingly documented various insects and animals in his backyard. He researched all of them, and drew very impressive sketches of all of them (he is quite good at drawing). Obviously this took him a lot of time and effort. So again, the day before he asks me, "So how is the project going" "I haven't started, but Greg and I have a sweet Diablo 2 party going" He laughs and says I'm screwed. This time I thought I really was. Greg and I anxiously wandered out to the plant we were supposed to be studying. Looking at it we realize we are screwed, until I see a bug I hadn't seen before on it. This being 2004, we all didn't have camera phones, I just remembered what it looked like and went home. Did a google search for, "common garden bugs" and found it. It was a ladybird, which is a type of ladybug that is orange instead of red. Recent googling has revealed that the Ladybird = Ladybug in the UK, which makes this even more ridiculous. Made some color overheads at Kinkos and got 100% on my project/presentation. My friend did not fair quite as well because his presentation was not very good. He was not pleased.

So what about you guys, where have you lucked out where you shouldn't have?
 
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OP, in your examples, you're assuming that getting a decent grade (and better than your friends) without studying "paid off" for you.

I got out of HS with maybe two weeks of actual class time in English. They wanted to keep me from graduating but, I had enough credits to graduate two people. So, they slapped my hand and kept me out of the honor roll. I never considered it as "paying off" though. Thank God for a great college English professor!
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
OP, in your examples, you're assuming that getting a decent grade (and better than your friends) without studying "paid off" for you.

I got out of HS with maybe two weeks of actual class time in English. They wanted to keep me from graduating but, I had enough credits to graduate two people. So, they slapped my hand and kept me out of the honor roll. I never considered it as "paying off" though. Thank God for a great college English professor!
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Like I said they are innocent examples. My payout was getting to play more Diablo 2 than my friend while getting better grades 😀
 
1. In high school, I was supposed to read "A Brave New World" and write a 3-page report and presentation on it. I read the first chapter and the last chapter to get an idea of what was going on in the book, then read somewhere around 10 pages I randomly selected out of the book. I just used five quotes from those 10 pages to support whatever I thought the book meant from reading the first and last chapters.

I don't remember anything about the book.

2. One of my friends and I hated going to our intro to psychology class when we were college freshmen. So, we skipped somewhere around 75% of them, and just left midway through another 10%. The syllabus was accurate, so we just showed up on the days new materials were handed out, then left right after we got them.

The best part about it was that the teacher didn't seem to mind, which we thought was pretty cool. She'd always give us the materials when we asked for them and what not, and never said anything about us leaving early. One day, we actually showed up, but the teacher was late. We invoked the 5-minute rule -- everybody else in the class stayed, though. As we were leaving the teacher rounded the corner and saw us looking back to check she was coming. She just yelled something like "maybe we'll see you guys next week."

Anyways, instead of going to/staying for classes, we just swung over to Denny's and studied the materials for a couple of hours every weekend. I got an "A," he got a "B," and we both saved around 2-3 hours a week.
 
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mrjminer said:
1. In high school, I was supposed to read "A Brave New World" and write a 3-page report and presentation on it. I read the first chapter and the last chapter to get an idea of what was going on in the book, then read somewhere around 10 pages I randomly selected out of the book. I just used five quotes from those 10 pages to support whatever I thought the book meant from reading the first and last chapters.

I don't remember anything about the book.

2. One of my friends and I hated going to our intro to psychology class when we were college freshmen. So, we skipped somewhere around 75% of them, and just left midway through the class for the other 10%. The syllabus was accurate, so we just showed up on the days new materials were handed out, then left right after we got them.

The best part about it was that the teacher didn't seem to mind, which we thought was pretty cool. She'd always give us the materials when we asked for them and what not, and never said anything about us leaving early. One day, we actually showed up, but the teacher was late. We invoked the 5-minute rule -- everybody else in the class stayed, though. As we were leaving the teacher rounded the corner and saw us looking back to check she was coming. She just yelled something like "maybe we'll see you guys next week."

Anyways, instead of going to/staying for classes, we just swung over to Denny's and studied the materials for a couple of hours every weekend. I got an "A," he got a "B," and we both saved around 2-3 hours a week.
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Uh...sounds like you should really go to class more. At least math class.
 
Sorry it is a bit long, but the story always makes me smile in amazement that it worked out so well.

Years ago when I was a cook, on one friday night.

My best friend and I were both cooks and were both working a night together which was suppose to be very busy due to some event going on in the park. I was in an extremely bad mood and was pretty fed up with the job too. So before the night kicked off, I proclaimed to my buddy that I wasn't cooking anything tonight and was going to deepfry everything instead (he was platting for me so I was responsible for all the cooking just about). He laughed and didn't take me serious and I started to drink (I always kept a 12 pack in the line cooler). This is an italian restaurant, so we start getting orders, things like chicken marsala/fish/etc normal italian dishes you'd see in a decent place. My buddy looks over at me and his mouth is just hanging open. I'm deep frying the chicken/fish/whatever and just making the sauces in the pans then tossing the meat into them.

He can't believe it and it is working out well, we are supremely busy but because of my short cut we are flowing along easy as can be (good thing too cause I was drinking a fair bit). We are getting complaints coming back from the servers how everyone is really enjoying their food (no shit who doesn't love deepfried?) so all is going well. One of the owners and the chef of the place comes back to see how we are doing and it was perfect timing, cause I just got a new order so started the sauce as I was tenderizing the meat and the boss was all happy and said good job and left the kitchen, again my friend is in amazement cause if he would of looked at the deepfryer her would of seen some chicken in there for another order.

So the night is going much better then I expected and my buddy is in awe at how well it is working out with all the complements. Then we get a burger order. He laughs at me and says it looks like you'll be cooking after all. I still remember this moment clear as day, I turn back to him and just look him straight in the eye and say, I don't think so and grab a patty from the cooler and put it in the fryer. Took the burger out and used 2 of these cardboard like things we put things we deep fry in to soak up the oil, i put the burger between them and squeezed it down to get rid of the excess oil and to flatter it out a lil because it became kinda bloated looking. Sent it out and sure enough, the person love it the server said lol.

At the end of the night we did a lot of covers and we had a thing where if we did over 250 I think it was, each cook got a $50 bonus, so we got the bonus, didn't work hard at all and got more compliments then we ever had before in a single night. That night is forever known as Deep Fry Friday.
 
Talking about high school English...

I have terrible memory and always have (I'm good at logic and reasoning though). In 9th grade Englsih, I would read the chapters for the next class (sometimes twice) and make 30-70s on just about about every quiz.

One day, I completely forgot to read. However, I was able to reason out the answers on the quiz and find the logical answer. I made an A. It was easier to reason out the correct answer without the bias of actually having memories about that part of the book.

I stopped reading and starting making As and Bs on quizzes. I knew enough from the in-class discussions to regurgitate for the essays on the exam.
 
Another story I thought of.

In high school health class I managed two things that make me smile when I think of them.

1. We had a unit on diseases. The teacher did an awful job of teaching us anything about this unit but already had the test pre-made. During this time I had gotten hooked on the first few seasons of house and was watching them back to back. The test was multiple choice and combined with my knowledge from House I was able to do very well on the test. When the class got the tests back many people were indignant at their failing grades and complained that the teacher didn't teach them anything, which she really hadn't. Her response, "Well someone got an A, so apparently he was paying attention." That someone was me. The indignant look on my then girlfriend's face as she argued for her grade will forever bring a smile to my face.

2. Since health was such a joke my fellow senior friends decided that we shouldn't go very often. Our high school had an open campus as well as a very lax attendance policy. If you didn't go to class they would call home and leave a message, that is about it. It has since changed. By the end of the semester I had missed health 20+ times and got an A. Not a big accomplishment for college, but for high school, I loved the look of mingled rage and confusion when my mom saw that report card.
 
Once my group partner and I paid a professional writing service for a paper in bio class. We modified it a little (by that I mean wrote our names on it) and turned it in for an A.
 
I can't recall anything in real life, other than times where I was building something and being precise did not really matter so I only did very rough measurements. Ended up with something semi crooked that still did what it had to, and was not really noticeable, so it works for me.

In school I always looked for opportunities to cut corners. I knew that the teacher would look at it, grade it, and it would never have a purpose again. No point in going all out, just had to be good enough to get a good grade.
 
NetWareHead said:
Once my group partner and I paid a professional writing service for a paper in bio class. We modified it a little (by that I mean wrote our names on it) and turned it in for an A.
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That's awesome. I wish I had known about services like this when I was in school... and had an income to pay for it. Writing papers was the most boring thing ever.
 
I was opening a lock(it was new and in a clamshell) and the design of the clamshell was such that I had to cut the corners off.

Made a previously painful endeavor a cinch 🙂
 
I was hungry and didn't feel like cooking, so I picked up the phone and ordered pizza. Not sure if this is what the OP wanted, but this has worked for me many times over the years.
 
college: accounting 201

the actual homework, the few times i did it, included about 30 minutes of conceptual questions and answers, and 3+ hours of detailed work moving shit around.

i stopped doing the second part, and got half credit on my homeworks.

i still got an A in the class. and half+ the class failed.
 
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landscaping jobs when i was in high school. i didnt mind the job with the exception of weeding. i hated weeding. always topped instead of pulled the roots. didnt care, was getting that crappy job done as soon as possible.
 
sandorski said:
I was hungry and didn't feel like cooking, so I picked up the phone and ordered pizza. Not sure if this is what the OP wanted, but this has worked for me many times over the years.
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Lol.

When I was in my teens, I wasn't the greatest driver as far as speed. I got this ticket in a construction zone and thought I was boned.

I knew someone that worked at the court so she got me a favor with the Magistrate and he told me to write a 3,000 word essay on the hazards of unsafe driving. I turned it in (I had like a month to do it?) and the ticket was dropped and I only paid a $25 court fee.

Now for the corner cutting.

Less than a year later I got a ticket in the same city and got the same Magistrate but didn't want to pull another favor with the friend. The Magistrate actually gave me the exact same "sentence" but with fines to be paid (like $100 or so). I turned in the exact same essay I had already written for that exact same court / magistrate and they kept the points off.
 
I'm amused at a couple differences.
In education, there are TONS of studies of the differences between children and adults. For children, they're generally motivated extrinsically. Things like grades, or $10 for an "A" on the repord card, or even a sticker on the paper are things that motivate children.

Adults - extrinsic motivators are still important, but they're much more motivated intrinsically. They tend to care more about what they're learning and how they can apply it to what they do.

Thus, a couple of posters here have indicated that behaviorally, they're still just little children. 😛 🙂
Maybe it's time that Mommy or Daddy turned of your video games. 😛 😛
 
DrPizza said:
I'm amused at a couple differences.
In education, there are TONS of studies of the differences between children and adults. For children, they're generally motivated extrinsically. Things like grades, or $10 for an "A" on the repord card, or even a sticker on the paper are things that motivate children.

Adults - extrinsic motivators are still important, but they're much more motivated intrinsically. They tend to care more about what they're learning and how they can apply it to what they do.

Thus, a couple of posters here have indicated that behaviorally, they're still just little children. 😛 🙂
Maybe it's time that Mommy or Daddy turned of your video games. 😛 😛
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Maybe because they understand doing the job better will give more $$. Or could be that the $$ holds "less value."

Just give me the $$.
 
In HS, our English class had to do a research paper and part way through the year the teacher went on maternity leave and we had a substitute. My friend and I goofed off the entire time we were supposed to be doing the research and never completed them.

I don't remember how we pulled it off but we ended up getting a D for a paper we never handed in instead of getting an F.
 
I copied a friend's English paper practically word for word and got a 97 on it......he got an 83 lol.

I gave a "How-to" speech in my Speech class on how to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and got an A. I didn't prepare at all.
 
OVerLoRDI said:
So what about you guys, where have you lucked out where you shouldn't have?
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a truck ran off the road, somehow i did a Matrix maneuver and walked away unscathed even though i should'nt have. everyone thought for sure i got hit.
i just told everyone i'm that badass 😎 the look on everyones faces was quite amusing.

but no i never lucked out through cheating myself of a good education but get good grades kinda stuff, thats just making your brain more stupid by working around the education system. luck for a grade myabe, but not for yourself.
 
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