Is Gaming the System always a Bad Thing

One of the many shortcomings of Corporate America is the fact that coworkers just cannot help but wonder if their fellow brother-in-floresent lighting is getting away with something.

Gaming the system (also referred to as gaming the rules, bending the rules, abusing the system, cheating the system, milking the system, playing the system, or working the system) can be defined as using the rules and procedures meant to protect a system in order, instead, to manipulate the system for a desired outcome …Wikipedia.

Simply put, Gaming the System is taking advantage of the rules of a system in a way that provides you an advantage that others do not receive. Rather than break the rules, there are often ways to take advantage of unintended consequences of the rule design. For example, you could eat lunch at your desk, and then use your lunch break to run errands or even go for a run.

Or get your car washed

I’ve always been a “never break a rule, when bending it will do” sort of person. And to be honest, I’ve gamed the system many a times. It basically come down to taking advantage of a situation and creating an opportunity for your personal benefit. Gaming the System is sometimes better marketed as Life Hacks which conjure a less negative meaning.

I think some people look at GTS the way most people think of Las Vegas: if someone wins big money at the craps table, someone else has to lose money. Other times people are just pissed they didn’t think of something first and now the loophole has been exposed and closed.

Let’s use an example from the ChicagoNow ecosystem. Every month we have a contest for Best Post. We can nominate one of our own pieces and one of someone else’s. The rules don’t state whether we could just nominate two other pieces but that would be too unselfish AMIRIGHT. I don’t usually participate but when I do, I ask a couple of CN blogger friends to nominate me with the promise that I will return the favor at their asking.

Is this GTS? Probably. Is it hurting anyone? If you assume the system was set up with positive intent for the community overall, then “gaming the system” means working the rules of the system for one’s personal gain specifically at the expense of the community. There are times when our Fearless Leader has to remind everyone that submissions are due because he hasn’t received any, so I don’t think that is always the case in my example.

For me GTS goes back to taking advantage of an unintended component of the rule design with the caveat that my gain is not severely impacting anyone else in a negative way.

What do you think? Share in the comments.

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Blogapalooza, Life Lessons, Time Machine

Second Chances are for others

I don’t think there is a person alive who doesn’t wish they could have a DoOver. A Mulligan. A Second Chance at something in their life. The Gods only know how many things I wish I could do over. If Fucking Up were an Olympic event, I would be the Michael Phelps of it.

I was too busy to participate in the last ChicagoNow Blogapalooza where we are challenged to write a post and publish it in one hour. The challenge:

“Write about something in your life you’d like a second chance at”

The geek in me says that if you could go back in time and change anything, even a small thing, you totally reboot the Time Continuum and suddenly Hitler won World War II. (Never mind the fact that you might be changing something from 1974). Some schools of thought say that if you go back in time and drink red instead of white wine, you will significantly change the Universe. On the other hand if you believe in Destiny then minor things have to cancel each other out.

All the baggage from the past that I carry with me

My first inclination was to say I’d like a second chance at becoming an engineer. My job pays well and I’m a smart guy, so I’m told but I don’t really do anything that matters. I would really like to design something that improves things for people.

The point of this exercise is to…Be creative, enjoy the process. Use words, images or video. Whatever you need to tell your story.

So who says a Second Chance means going back in time?

When I really think about it, I think I would like a second chance at all the situations where I hurt someone, either unintentionally, or more often intentionally. Looking back through the lens of time, I see that I was often a hot headed kid whose emotions were a bundle of raw nerves and hormones with a laser-like fixation on not letting anyone put anything over on me. Needless to say, I failed miserably at that.

So perhaps I could get a chance to apologize to those I hurt by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time or not being there when I was needed. Or perhaps I could go back and not be so hard on myself because I now realize that things don’t have to go exactly my way for everything to eventually work out.

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I’m happy to report that one of the many home repair and improvement projects around our house has finally been completed. We finally got someone to paint our Wrought Iron Gate and Basement Access Doors (known affectionately to us as our Wizard of Oz doors).

A good rule of thumb is if you hate a task, you’re probably wise to outsource it, even if the economics are questionable. Also, you can probably figure out a way to make more money. But no one can make more time.

The two biggest challenges we had were weather and finding someone to take on this small of a job. Most painters can earn more money on bigger jobs so they were reluctant to take this one. The other problem was the weather didn’t always co-operate. To paint this material correctly, you have to do a lot of prep work. It involves scraping off the rust with steel wool and then applying a coat of special primer designed for iron (this is why we decided to outsource the job). So you need to check the weather report and make sure there is no rain forecast for at least two consecutive days.

Unfortunately for us, the first two times the job was scheduled, it unexpectedly rained that morning. Even a little sprinkle will require putting off the project because the metal holds the water and the paint won’t adhere correctly until all the water evaporates.

[placegallery]

The choice between doing it yourself and hiring a contractor is more than just a matter of money. It’s a careful balancing act between a bunch of other factors: less hassle, faster results, safety, and professional-quality work. We probably could have done the gate ourselves, but it would have taken 4 times as long and probably wouldn’t have looked as good. Luckily I was able to find Changing Colors Inc. After a couple of false starts, they were able to paint the door and gate and it looks great.

[Disclosure: I received no special treatment for mentioning them in this post. I did get 10% off for being an Angie’s List member.]
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Thank you for reading and I hope you will comment below. Here’s the part where I beg for stuff because we get paid in likes, shares, re-tweets and feedback. Please also do any and all of the following:

Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.

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Weekend DIY