I'm a bit confused why this article was written in a satirical (sarcastic?) style. It raises a lot of good points, but it would have been much more straightforward if it hadn't been written sarcastically. All of the points in the article could have been written from the position that the author ACTUALLY advocates, which would have made it more readable without sacrificing any content.
While the "shit sandwich" tactic mentioned in this article is definitely a negative experience, I feel that in some cases it's better than coming out of the corner throwing full punches. If nothing else, it implies that one is at least trying to follow the broad advice in this article and avoid making issues into ad hominem attacks, even if the actual method used is flawed. Great article overall.
I definitely agree with this sentiment. I work at a technology-focused software startup, and while we all have Google Plus accounts, it isn't a service that most of us use regularly. Given the fact that I've never even been "added to a circle" by someone who isn't part of a technology-focused university or company, it seems less likely that there are legitimate and massive (400M!) pockets of users floating around anywhere remotely close to my circle of acquaintances.
That said, I'm on the US East Coast, so I could easily have a biased viewpoint. Perhaps all the Google+ users are elsewhere in the world? Or perhaps the little Google+ notification bar at the top-right of the default Gmail interface counts as an impression for the purposes of this study?
I agree completely. I remember that cheating in college (at least on a small scale -- e.g. copying homework in certain STEM classes with a "right" answer) was common and not viewed as risky behavior. I doubt that any of the people who cheated would have said that they felt they were morally in the right or even in a gray area if confronted. Cheating is more akin to stealing a laptop from an empty dorm room than it is to running afoul of some arcane law that few people have ever heard of.
Given the high value that many desirable career paths (e.g. consulting, finance, academia) place on a good GPA, and the low probability of getting caught, the risk/reward tradeoff from cheating is naturally going to tempt people to make the unscrupulous choice.