Ethics and the "hacking system" Q from YC application
patio11: Beating the system doesn't require dishonesty -- it just requires approaching the problem in a way the system did not anticipate.For example, we all know what "the system" looks like for getting hired, right?  Send in your resume, which looks like every other resume.  We'll have an HR drone read it.  You may be called back for an interview.  Don't call us, we'll call you.One way to hack this system is to create a website designed to interact with, specifically, the decisionmaker in charge of hiring you.  Maybe you pull in Google Analytics, an A/B test, sixteen different web services/Twitter integrations/whatever, and then after a few minutes hit him with a AJAX popup asking for what time is best for you to call him about hiring you.  On the call, you demonstrate uncanny attention to what he needs by the simple expedient of talking about the topics he evidenced the most interest in by interacting with on your resume.  (He read seven blog posts and didn't touch your educational achievements once?  That tells you something.)That isn't dishonest in the slightest: you're using your professional skills to effectively demonstrate that you and the company would be a mutually beneficial pairing.  You're just presenting yourself in a more engaging, effective, forceful way than the overdone resume format would present you in.