[driven20]

Serious question open to anyone.

What is the line between "short cut" and "working smarter"?

It's not related to this post. Stealing is wrong. It just seems to me the line between being efficient and taking short cuts is really murky.

[random42]

It depends on which personal, professional, social, ethical and legal boundaries you are willing to cross.

Bribing a foreign government bureaucrat is a "short cut", but it crosses many lines, that are not ok.

Spamming users after buying their email address, cross fewer such boundaries, cause much less harm, and could be argued as "working smarter".