I see people taking shortcuts all the time. I see people bragging about "gaming" the system. People using "hacks" and loopholes to exploit and "win." But do they really win?
Some people would rather spend their time trying to figure out how to hack a process. The funny thing is: If they just did the work, lots of times they'd finish quicker.
There's something to doing the work. There's joy in the work. There's a sense of accomplishment in the work. There's the process of actually learning a skill and becoming proficient at a thing. When you skip the work, you miss those things.
I think people that - and let's be clear about this, it's cheating - "game" the system miss the point. Putting a trophy on your shelf that says you're the best, when you clearly are not, misses the point.
Stealing someone else's work and putting your name on it doesn't make you a good writer. It makes you an asshole. Exploiting a rule - a technicality - in muay thai fighting tournaments to win a bout doesn't make you a good fighter. It makes you an asshole.
Striving for a thing can be - some would argue should be - the joyful part.