Am I stupid? How long will Article Spinning Work?

Hey Guys,

I've tried a few 'follow the program' type of approaches to SEO and a number of them have suggested article spinning. Each time I try to do it, maybe it's me, but I get the feeling I'm 'gaming'/'tricking' the search engines/article directories by doing it.

I totally understand that a justification for it might be that everybody else is doing it - but as a beginner to SEO I've also seen plenty of folks talk about looking at the long term and doing the 'right thing'.

Surely, if Google could crack the code on detecting spun articles they would make sure they weren't effective?

I usually start doing SEO at the end of my full time work day - and I have found I really need to believe in what I'm doing to keep me going - and being honest - I don't like the whole concept of spinning articles. It's not about hard work - while I'm beginning I'll write my own 500 word articles until the cows come home - I just feel like I'm not doing the right thing when I'm doing spinning.

But help me out here - am I being stupid? Am I looking at it the wrong way?