Ethics 101: To re-use or not to re-use?

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by CircularLogic

My answer to the last question of "is it acceptable to dodge a rule you simply dont like" is yes. I do believe that too many people are into the cult of FIRST rather than the actual issue of the things they are supposed to teach, i.e. technical expertise, programming expertise, or actual robotics. Following this type of rule to the letter represents being too caught up with the organization of FIRST and not necessarily what it teaches.

Rule violations will always happen, unitentional and intentional. Things break, changes in the pit almost always leave with some type of violations, and some teams have to knowingly use a diffent gauge wire when they only have 3 minutes to fix it, but that not the point. The point of this program is not to pay incredible attention and respect the infallibility of FIRST, but to learn from it. When people are too caught up in the cult of FIRST, I feel that we miss the important parts of the program as in the actual robotics part of it.

p.s. I always copy and paste lines of code. Its quite annoying to have to write entire drive algorithms over again when you have the same drive train.

FIRST is not just about robotics. I believe that it has a higher standard. Gracious Professionalism is just part of it. There have been many threads about following rules. I will state again here that a rule is a rule. It is meant to be followed. It is there for a reason. It can be changed if the powers that be deem that you have a valid point. It is wrong to intentionally break a rule. It is a violation even if it is not intentional. If you break rules then you must live with the consequences.

It is also your responsibility to pay attention to all of the details. If you don't in the real world then you won't last long. As for people being caught up in the "cult" of FIRST, that is not a bad thing. Being caught up on ones self and putting them self above all others is.

I am glad to see that you admit breaking the rules. This will make it easier for the inspectors to find those who intentionally break the rules.

Is it a good rule? Probably not but it is still a rule. It holds the same intent and validity as only 4 CIM motors.