Is it wrong not to play your a game in life until it's worth it?

Sounds like you are asking if its wrong to not give your all unless it really matters. For example, not turning in any work that doesn’t count for your grade, and only doing required material, or just not showing a deeper understanding of the subject until the tests.

I personally think it’s better to just give 100% no matter what vs. giving 0–50% when it doesn’t matter and 100% when it does.It doesn’t make you see very dependable or hardworking. Slacking off and only doing what is expected of you/ what is important and not going above and beyond or putting in extra effort isn’t really going to benefit you. I learn a lot more and gain a lot more skills when I put all my effort into something, regardless of whether it’s super important or not. I do a lot of things that require time, effort, and practice to get better at. An example would be my saxophone. If I only put effort in at the concerts, I’m not going to get better at playing.

It took me a few reads of your question to understand that it’s “A-game” not “a game”

The school and sports thing really threw me off. Neither are situations where you gain an advantage through concealing your abilities or slacking off to await optimum opportunities.

@stanleybmanly Ok I will go in to detail. In High school a teacher asked why I am so good at multiple choice tests and I told him my secrets and he told the class and made the tests harder to game. Example I learned that a(n) would link grammatically correct with the first word in the correct answer. Also other tricks that I forgot. From the teachers adjustments my marks tanked to 60%. I would assume that any trick in sports would be copied after the next game by your competitors. So you wouldn’t want to use it off of the final game In the play-offs. For me I am giving my “A” materiel in Fluther and hope for more GA’s and I share as best as I can to help the community.

@stanleybmanly In 1992 was when I was in grade 10. I should have kept my mouth shut until I finished grade 12. Also I had the joke pick “C” if you don’t know what to answer. Maybe you have some tricks that you would want to share with Fluther?

Your explanation makes a great deal of sense though there is not a chance in hell of parsing the thrust of it from your original question. If you had asked: Is it wrong to exploit a flaw you discover in testing methodology, I wouldn’t be whining. But there’s something about your questions that often trips me up, and I mean that almost literally. I stumble over the words, and start trying to sort out what it is you intend.

And my answer is of course you should have kept your mouth shut. And it is probably the wrong answer. In retrospect, do you suppose it would have made any difference in your life had you kept the secret to yourself?

You learn more if you study to learn the material.

Gaming the system helps no one.

Seconding @Kardamom

@RedDeerGuy1 You are describing what you think is succeeding without doing any work. But that isn’t success, and does not work. You would not have made it through Grade 12 learning a test taking trick that worked with one teacher in grade 10.

But if you had studied and learned the material, you would be far ahead today..

@zenvelo You're right. I third @Kardamom I got a flash of awesome from the class that I was given praise. I should have appreciated the complement for what it was.

@Kardamom wait a sec. There are just too many examples of folks held up to worship for no talent beyond their ability to game the system. There is one particular individual (you’ll never guess who I’m talking about) whose entire career has been about gaming each and every system he’s ever encountered.

No, in a general philosophical sense, that’s an arbitrary decision you get to make, unless you choose to surrender that decision to some particular credo, code, person or organization (of which there are several with opinions you could surrender to).

For example, a sports coach may well want you to bring your “A” game to every game, while another might tell you to save it for the playoffs, or you might choose to tell all coaches to have fun but you have no interest in even trying out for their team. A coach is great when they help you do something you want to do, but they can also be someone manipulating you into doing something you don’t actually want to do.

I tend to think it’s most important for people to find what they’re most interested in and/or passionate about, and to focus on that. In which case, there’s probably little use in moralizing about whether they’re playing their “A” game or not, because they’ll tend to be self-inspired. If you need to hype yourself up and struggle with your willpower, you’re probably not doing your calling (or something else is interfering).

I don’t go along with the learning/sports analogy.

In sports, there are examples of teams that develop special plays for the championships that the other teams have not had a chance to defend against.

In learning, knowledge is not diminished when it is shared. You should concentrate on learning the material over gaming the system. Why did your teacher ask how you did so well on the tests? That is a peculiar question to ask. Did he think that you did not really understand the material?