I don't know if it's healthy to view your life as a thing you can sacrifice, in the name of art or honesty or anything else. Your life doesn't solely belong to you, the pieces of yourself that you give to your loved ones ties you together. If you hurt yourself, you also hurt them.

The most optimal way to 'play the game' is to stay in the game as long as you can manage. The longer you are in, the more time and opportunity you have to improve. Sometimes movies and books tell us that honesty or good intentions will open the world to us, and in certain situations they have a point.

And other times you have to make a judgement call. You could have answered that question by not being dishonest, but not in a way that would disqualify you from consideration. And if you go home and research the question and figure out the answer, wouldn't that have been a better way?