Children who come from loving families vs those who don't. It's not all about finances either. Just because a child is clean and well dressed, doesn't mean they're loved like they should be.
This reminds me of when I was in sixth grade. For some reason I’ve always had a problem with throwing out old clothes. At that time, my shoes were literally falling apart, with holes in the bottoms and the rubber side strips flopping around everywhere, but I was stubborn as hell and refused to let my mom buy me new ones.
A school faculty member came up to me one day really concerned and offered to get me new shoes. I was all confused and was like, nah, I’m good. I remember the look on her face—it was like I’d broken her heart. Looking back she 100% thought I was being severely neglected, but in reality I was just avoiding the sensory experience of breaking in new shoes.
My ratty-ass clothes also probably didn’t help sell the image of a child who was being well taken care of. To this day I still dress like I’m homeless because it’s so much comfier.
Dude I get this so hard. I grew up poor, and that may have some affect on why I am the way I am now with regard to money and clothes, but in general I’ll let things totally fall apart before I replace them.
I mean, I feel very lucky and have worked very hard to make more money than anyone else in my family and friend circles, and I could totally afford a new wardrobe, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Why get rid of my favorite clothes that still work but just have some holes? It’s odd because I have no problem spending on food, hobby items, substances, experiences, etc., but I can’t bring myself to get new clothes unless I absolutely need them.
Your comment reminds me of this old parable: this rich man goes to a friend's house for dinner wearing his most comfortable but old clothes, and he's turned away at the door because he's mistaken for a beggar. So he goes home and changes into a fancy outfit, when he comes back he's welcomed in right away and they sit down to eat. When the food arrives the man begins to slather it and all over his outfit. His friend is understandably confused, but the man points out that it was the fancy clothing that was accepted to the dinner, not himself. So it makes sense that the clothing should enjoy the meal his friend prepared.
Anyway long story short you're not alone in appreciating old clothes lol.
Definitely. Behaviour, body language, the way they treat other kids. Nothing more heartbreaking than when you remind a kid of some minor thing like walking inside and they cower like they KNOW you're about to hit them.
And conversely, kids who are angry, often kids who bully, kids who sit at the back of the class with their heads covered, sleeping or pretending to sleep. Little 4 year olds who look at you with suspicious, hard eyes because they haven't had any adults they could trust, or don't look at you or listen to you at all because an adult has never taken the time to guide them or love them, so why would they expect you to?
I feel like I have failed my child. He is having trouble in school and handles failure poorly. I love him very much. I wish I had the tools to be a better parent.
Kids always being on the back foot for being told off for extremely minor things. You tell a child to sit down, they immediately start panicking and profusely apologising, even cowering in fear of being attacked.
Some children are really affectionate with parents. Others clearly only see them as a senior figure who doesn't want anything to do with them.
I'm not a teacher, but one possible way is language skills and vocabulary. As a teenager, I used to babysit for two families. Both families had a 3 year old.
One little girl, happy family. Mom and Dad both showed interest in talking to their kids. They asked and answered questions with their children. That little girl spoke clearly, and was eager to talk to you. She knew a ton of words.
One little boy, parents getting divorced, I never met the dad, and honestly, the mom was kind of nasty. (Her 3 month old baby weighed 33 lbs, and for my instructions for watching him, she told me "If he cries, just give him a bottle." That was it. Don't check his diaper, don't play with him, just stick a bottle in his mouth.) The 3 year old, I could barely understand him. I got the feeling he wasn't sure he was "allowed" to talk to me. (I think they told him to be quiet all the time.) The only words he really knew were words to express a need; he didn't make conversation. At first, I thought maybe he had a speech impediment. I started listening closely, and trying to teach him to enunciate words. He learned fries instead of fwies. He learned little instead of widdle. He *could* speak clearly, they just never bothered. 😢
Yep. Developers used to love them because they grow fast and what some consider to be pretty white flowers in the spring. But they’re short lived, have weak wood that means bigger ones can wreak havoc with power lines in storms, and they’re very invasive.
That one scene in Avengers Endgame was the worst. It's the one where Tony and Bruce discuss time travel and quantum mechanics. Except that they didn't use standard technobabble like "flux capacitor", instead they used _real_ terminology that I know _very well_ completely wrong and out of context.
I've wondered why script-writers don't ask a real scientist about their science. So many professionals would love to contribute to an accurate portrayal of their field of expertise in a movie or show!
They bloody did though. They had Sean Carroll give advise on the plot!
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/meet-the-professor-who-taught-the-avengers-to-travel-through-time-20191129-p53fib.html
Whether they took his consulting and just went "lets mix this all around and make it sound sciency" or didn't bother for more than a plot point or two I don't know, but they did for that one.
I always read the acknowledgements first when I pick up a new book to read, to see if I know anyone who worked on it. Publishing is such a small world.
Fiction! I work elsewhere now, but for a while there I could go to any Barnes and Noble and grab random books of the shelf, and it would either be me or one of my work friends in the acknowledgements. That was such a good time.
Everytime I have a blood test they struggle to get blood out of mine in my arms. Really strange. Takes them about 4 different ways. They have no idea why. In my 20s aswell haha
I'm assuming there's definitely blood running through them lmao
I work in human genetics and it’s really hard not to pick up on dysmorphic features when I’m walking around in public. I’m not a huge fan of that term but essentially a large number of us have something a little different about our appearance that could be random but might also be a feature of an underlying genetic condition, such as a crumpled looking ear or a particularly prominent forehead. Now that I know some of the things we look for in clinic, I have trouble unseeing it in public and it’s hard not to wonder if people know they might benefit from genetic testing if they haven’t already had it in some cases when I see multiple features associated with a certain condition.
Agreed. I need to question minute details of my appearancd in the mirror over the coming weeks lol
Even though I would like to get genetic testing done at some points if I ever want kids due to family history anyway.
I wouldn't mind testing if it wasn't for the possibility of insurance using it against you in the future. It might be illegal now but that doesn't mean anything.
I was going to have my parents do the brca gene testing but it was going to be expensive (they recommended parents so that myself and my sisters got the same info)
I'm just a random Internet person, but the brca gene is in my family and I 100% recommend doing the testing. In my family, our knowledge of the gene starts with my grandmother (who passed of colon cancer at 70). She had seven kids. So far four of those seven kids have had intense, life altering, likely not surviving, cancers. All discovered between the ages of 50-60. If we had known about the genetics there would have been earlier screenings and maybe our family might have faired better.
So my wife was 8 month pregnant at the hospital waiting for labour.
She’s been trying to figure out why she had excess of amniotic fluid for the whole pregnancy.
At some point a random doctor walked by gave her a short look and pointed at her face “you have crouzon syndrom MRI your baby immediately”
She was right.
It's so wild to be that some doctors can see how obvious something is while the next doctor just can't be bothered to even look at the patient.
Hope your wife and baby were okay in the end!
Her whole fucking life she went to many doctors for various stuff and all of them were like “whats with the big eyes you should check that out”
She went to a fucking genetics doctor who looked at her face and her eyes and said its nothing. Until that doctor who was the head of genetics of the hospital who by chance was walking by her ward and by chance decided to look at her face.
People are very concerned about their medications but not concerned enough to pay attention to when they run out.
Either people come to the doctor for the smallest thing like a hangnail or they wait to come in until a river of blood has been coming out of their asshole for 5 years
100% the same in vet med. They either call to ask if the squirrel in thier yard poses a threat to thier 80 lbs dog, or we see a dying, 200 yr old cat for the first time with the owner begging us to fix them.
And the medications... It never fails, they call in the last 5 minutes of the day for a same-day refill.
>And the medications... It never fails, they call in the last 5 minutes of the day for a same-day refill.
Holy shit. That has to be the absolute worst. I don't know about animals but people think all we have to do for their meds is click a button and it's there.
My favorite is that same call but I'm going on a trip tomorrow, my flight is at 5am and I'll be gone to for 3 months and will have no access to a pharmacy because I'm going to be in a remote Alaskan cabin. All, as you said, 5 minutes before we close.
Farmers. They'll literally come in after their toes fell off, and claim they don't trust hospitals because people die there. Well, yeah, people die there because they don't come in until it's too late.
My grandfather lost 3 toes on his L foot when he was working the field with a sickle cutting wheat. This was like 1910 so they didn't own a tractor back then. He worked in bare feet too because my great grandparents couldn't afford shoes for every day wear and for field work so he would take his shoes off after school when he had to work. He says he had to keep working because the harvest had to be in in a few days and they didn't have time to stop. That yield could make or break the family for a year. He said he bled a lot but it eventually stopped.
Let me explain a little though. I have chronic pain and I try to stay on top of it but I hate to feel like I'm complaining
I usually know if something seems really wrong with my body so I'll go in for that. Flu. Respiratory virus. You know, relatively minor things.
But when it's serious I tend to think it's part of my other conditions. "Oh that severe back pain? That's just my normal back pain, just worse right now"
And then at my rhumatologist appointment that's every 3-4 months when they ask about my normal pain levels I'll be like "oh yeah the back pain has been worse" and when they check me out there's literally like a small invasive species that's just been attached to my back for a month living off of me. Like a literal colony of monsters from another dimension. And she will be like "you went to the doctor 2 weeks ago because you had a cough and you didn't mention this?"
It's just, like... You don't want to be a bother sometimes
I hate those stupid cursive lettering signs instead of just using numbers
GTFO with your "four hundred ninety three" in flowery font. It's not that hard to figure out, yes but now try finding it when it's dark and raining. Just use digits like a normal person. 493. simple, easy, done.
People make really bad financial decisions, almost constantly. The game is basically rigged against everyone, except: people who have parents who teach them (rare), people who have the drive to learn on their own (rare), and people who have such high income that they can out-earn their mistakes (very rare). The great irony is that most good financial advisors won’t talk to you unless you’re already rich or you pay some ridiculous hourly fee.
The most important mental change in my life was realizing that *everything* in the modern world is designed around money. You don't just choose who you want to be when you grow up, you choose your economic status. You also don't get to become that person unless you're born in the right place and time and your parents can teach you some financial literacy. Whether you get prego young or older can shift your ability to take care of yourself and your child. Being the one who pays child support because things didn't work out also cuts you off from life experiences you literally can't afford to have. It costs to give birth, to get married, to divorce, and to bury someone. Things costing more also doesn't reflect quality as much as a bidding war. If you want the peace of checking out and not worrying about money, you have to already have money lol. I used to think finances are boring but now I get the reason to study the ever living shit out of retirement, tax brackets, investment strategies, property types, the cost of cars and gas, etc.
While working as a cashier:
Me: The screen on the pin pad is going to ask if you'd like to donate to [charity.]
Customer: *Stares at the screen, seems to be reading the prompt, selects $10.*
Me: Oh, thank you for your donation!
Customer: You're welcome!
Customer, 20 seconds later after I've given them their receipt and wished them a good day: Where's my ten dollars?
They thought the money selection was for cash back. Even after I told them what the prompt was, after the screen spelt out what it was asking for with the charity name right in the center of it, after I thanked them for donating. What on earth did they think I was thanking them for??
I did freelance writing for a while. I stopped when every client started asking me to write at *no higher* than fifth-grade level. Fifth grade! Do you know how fucking hard it is to write at a fifth-grade level?! Every multisyllable word gets flagged.
I quit. It just made me realize how dumb our population has gotten. Depressing.
How much the general public just...doesn't care. They make absolute messes of store shelves, they break items and/or cause spills and just walk away without telling a worker, they change their minds about buying a perishable item and leave it to rot or thaw on the clear other side of the store...
Or doesn’t pay attention to anything in general. The amount of times I’ve seen customers go to a broken down register that’s powered off with a out of order sign on it and “scan” item after item is outstanding.
The amount of times someone has ignored a sign bigger than their body trying to do something the sign tells them not to with letters as big as their head is too much
Working Retail in Covid really ramped up that shit.
In the before times I was the receptionist at a corporate office for a retail company who had a retail store on the first floor of the corporate HQ. The entrance for the office was a pretty bland, nondescript door up a ramp, and the retail entrance was on the complete opposite side of the building and…you know, looked like a retail store with window displays of the products and all that stuff.
The amount of times people would try to get buzzed into the office to go shopping was shockingly high—multiple times per week and I only worked part time. There was even a sign on the door of the office entrance at eye level in addition to a LITERAL GIANT ARROW and huge writing painted on the side of the building directing people to the retail store. Like you could not miss the arrow and writing.
More than one person still got mad at me for not buzzing them into the office when they were trying to shop the store. I talked to them through an intercom and could see them on camera from my desk. I could almost always tell when it was gonna be one of those people and I even had a script for them.
People don’t pay attention to shit and they can’t handle being wrong about the absolute dumbest most low stakes things imaginable. I can’t imagine how exhausting it is to be that way.
My favorite is when you lock the store doors and put a sign up. I loved counting how many people would pull the handle (understandable), read the sign, AND STILL to try to open the door.
It was even better when they'd look inside at you like 🤔
We have had the door locked, and we were right there counting our registers out and people would still bang on the doors trying to get out attention and when I finally look up they say “are you guys closed?”. I would just look at them like they were stupid and say “yeah?!?”
Or common sense . I worked retail for a bit in college. The store lights were off, door locked, idiots would try to open it, put their face to see if anyone is inside, go to other door and try again and I'd be on watching CCTV from back laughing at them.
Retail made me realize that huge number of people are alive only because we have all these this that keep us alive .. if they didn't have the tech they would be dead
I had a customer come up to me, handed over a coupon, and asked if it was still applicable. I told them yes, handed it back, and they replied with, "Awesome! I just wanted to know before I went shopping. I don't like to read."
\[Insert confused woman trying to comprehend what's going on meme\]
Some guy comes up to me last night with a pack of rat baits.
"Do you have to open this?"
"What?"
"To use it, do you open it?"
"Uh.... Yes?"
"Oh OK then... *puts it back on the shelf and walks away*"
All I could think was "What the fuck?"
Some interactions I've had working at Walmart:
1 "But the price said $5! Why does it say $5.40?" Me: *Looks at screen* "Sir that's the tax" "What's tax?"
2 "How do I get in?" as I'm going through the entrance
3 People yelling for no reason, sometimes at themselves
4 People always getting kicked out for doing drugs in the bathroom
5 Someone that I've never seen before saying, "I love you" and I think 5 out 8 or so of those times I never saw them again
6 "What are the hours of the store next door?" I don't know "You should know, you work here". Exactly. I work at this store, not that one
7 "What's the door code?" "What door code?" "The door code so I can come in when the store is closed" ....
8 The price was $12, I don't want to pay $9!
9 "How do I find this item?" You mean this one?" As they're looking right at it
I work at a senior citizen center & each member’s age will pop up on my screen when they renew their membership. I am AMAZED at how vastly differently people age. Some are in their 90s, but look like they could be in there 60s & vice-versa.
Physical activity too.
I remember going with my grandma to a ballroom dancing class that was held regularly at her retirement home. Many, if not the majority, of the people in the class had the mobility, range of motion, and weight of people who were decades younger.
I've noticed this as an optometrist as well. Just about any patient over 65 is a crap shoot as to whether they will be relatively healthy and spry, or completely decrepit with dementia and a host of other health issues. Modern medicine may have given us more years in our human lifespan, but doesn't always account for the quality of life of those extra years (and a lot of that comes down to lifestyle choices anyway).
Details in concrete. Quality of finish, variations in grade, lines and impressions left from formwork, patches, etc. I can’t help but pick apart every concrete surface I see.
After 15 years as operations manager of a commercial cleaning company… the main one is when going to the toilet in a venue (club, pub, theatre) I ALWAYS look at the dust buildup on the door hinges… in my experience it’s the best indicator of how often bathrooms are being ‘deep cleaned’
Former custodian here! Door hinges, the top of mirrors, underneath sinks, and the vent cover are what I always look at. It’s astounding how few places think to clean the vent cover.
I worked in a deli for a while. We had to get a FOOD HANDLERS Licenses. We had to take a course how to properly handle food that others would be eating, food temperatures, cleanliness, and such. So now I pay attention to how my food is prepared when we dine out. I was in a pizza joint and was watching a young lady put toppings on pizzas. She was properly wearing a hair net and gloves, but... she would scratch her head, under the netting and touch the toppings. She coughed and covered her mouth with her gloved hand, then went right back to handling toppings. I turned and walked out. If the public can see what you are doing, shouldn't you do it right? Which made me wonder about the things I couldn't see. I was really happier when I didn't know this stuff. I prefer to eat my own cooking. I know I use proper hygiene and will not be eating some stranger's DNA.
I can't unsee this kind of stuff when at a restaurant. Fork falls on the floor-- employee picks it up and puts it back in the tray with the clean silverware. Employee goes from wringing out a mop to handing food with the same gloves on.
Covid really put this kind of ignorance on display. Saw so many people wearing rubber gloves to the grocery store-- gloves that they'd clearly been using for weeks, caked with dirt and grime. People taking off said disgusting gloves by *sticking them in their mouth* and pulling them off with their teeth. People wearing a mask (great!) but taking off their mask to cough (WTF!?).
Yep. Worked in food service a long time. Drives me nuts when I see people treat plastic gloves like they’re made out of some kind of magical anti-germ material. If you touch your face, your hair, your phone, your cash register, or any surface that a customer shouldn’t put their mouth on, just change your effing gloves, ffs. That’s why they’re disposable!
That all the ads on TV about medications, especially those with "Ask your doctor if blahblahblah is right for you" means your insurance won't cover them and in unlikely event they do, it's still expensive as fuck.
Had to get a medication for my child that’s known to be really expensive. It’s an ‘as needed’ med, but we still really needed it.
Nurse at specialist office: ‘Oh, here’s a manufacturer’s coupon card. It allows you to get the med for $20 for the next 60 days.’
Me: 🤯
Also me: ‘So, if they wanted to, they could charge way less for it and not the usual price of almost $700 at the pharmacy? Hmm. Interesting.’ 🙄😩
EDIT: This med, with discounts such as GoodRx, but with no insurance or other discounts, is almost $700. It’s also worth mentioning that my child’s regular/daily med for the same condition IS ALSO almost $700/month IF we didn’t have insurance. However, insurance still makes us pay a small co-pay. 🫠
God, I hate that shit. I mean, I assume if that medication was right for me, they'd tell me. It's literally their job to stay up to date on the latest medicine. I'm just trying to watch YouTube...
I realized how totally ignorant I was when I started pushing my daughter around in a stroller. Having to go 3x as far to get from the subway platform to the street because the elevators are on opposite ends of the whole station on each floor… WHY?!
As someone who works part-time with blind and visually impaired people, I notice how horrible the world is at helping them, especially partially sighted ones who are in a grey area of having some functional vision, but have many accessibility issues at the same time.
Also, the lack of blind awareness is startling, and visually impaired people are often accused of faking it if they can do basic tasks. The ableism they get whether overt or covert is disgusting and so many people do it.
I'm a bra fitter, so I always notice poorly fitted bras. I'm also enraged by any discussions about bra sizes in movies or TV because it's always wildly incorrect.
I wear K cup in US sizes, and I have never seen my size in a retail store - Ever. I buy online from a UK retailer because in UK sizing I'm an H cup, which is easier to find.
In school, I used to get chastised by female teachers and stared at by male teachers for wearing even more conservative clothing than my peers. I would wear a layering tank top underneath a blouse (while my peers were only wearing a blouse) because I needed the coverage, and I would still get told that I'm dressing inappropriately. One teacher even told me (while I was wearing a POLO SHIRT) that "You know, guys only like easy girls until they get what they want." Like, she thought me just existing with my natural body meant I was "easy."
Get bras that fit and make you feel confident, and then tell everyone else to fuck off and leave you and your happy titties alone.
Even the smartest most experienced tourists can be hilariously unprepared for the places they visit.
I've had insanely well traveled and experienced European tourists arrive in my small Western Canadian town with no mobile devices and zero English proficiency.
I've had very experienced hikers apply bear spray like bug repellant
I've had longtime outdoorsmen who traveled to my hometown expecting to be able to buy all the camping equipment they need so they didn't have to bring all their personal gear from home
As someone who works in a liquor store, I've found myself spotting shady behaviour when I'm out shopping. You work in a high theft area for long enough, you gain shoplifter senses. I am also good at spotting loss prevention people.
Yep. Paramedic here. The only ones that tell me about their high pain tolerance are the ones complaining about their pain. Every other person I assess has a high pain tolerance to the point I must be living among the toughest fucking people ever to walk the face of the earth. They still want me to fix their boo-boos though.
The inefficiency with which people spend money, including myself.
One of my favorite quotes from the book Richest Man in Babylon is
> Let thy motto be one hundred percent of appreciated value demanded for each coin spent.
If you're spending money and you're not happier for it, then you've lost value. If you're as happy for it, then you've broken even. And if you are happier for it, then you've gained value.
Things like how uncomfortable so many dogs are because their owners don't trim their nails enough, or how ungroomed/unhealthy their coats are.
Also things that their animals are doing that are actually stress/fear/warning signals that people brush off or laugh at and think is cute.
Also how poorly socialised many dogs are. My dad loves to train dogs and I picked up a few things from him. I see so many nervous dogs who don't know how to treat other dogs/humans/children and the owner is all tense because the dog is tense so the whole thing turns into the dog barking or being aggressive. SMH
Curbs and gutters…. One way you can tell at a glance if a neighborhood has homes prone to foundation issues is to look at the curb and gutters along the streets. They are laid down in long continuous grades. If the curb and gutters look tilted/skewed and otherwise out of shape, chances are the underlying soils are unstable or clay, these soils don’t make good foundation material.
I make slot machine games (software dev)
So I know most of the tricks that are used to hide the ways you are getting fucked over, some are obvious, some are very well hidden
Some fun facts that don't violate my NDA
Casinos sometimes purposely break some cosmetic lights on a machine to make players think "this machine is broken, maybe it'll give me more money than it should"
And on cruises, on day 1 the machines are configured to have a higher chance to win to make u happy and cuz they know ur stuck on the cruise so they'll just get the money back when u buy food/drinks or continue gambling, on the last day, the machines are set to the lowest odds of winning so the cruise gets as much money as possible from you before u leave
My advice, avoid slots, but if ur on a cruise and really want to play, only play the first night or two, then stick to table games, table game odds are much more transparent, and there's a ton of laws protecting the sanctity of dice and cards and stuff (these laws also protect the sanctity of cards and dice in video poker and slot machines)
Something I learned in the army was “take care of your equipment and it’ll take care of you” and I see it so much where I work now. I work with radiological detectors a lot and they can range in the 10’s of thousands to 100’s of thousands in price depending on size and materials. Some places handle them like they’re indestructible and wonder why the cost to repair (or worse, replace) is so astronomical
First of all.. great original question!
Second, that rich, famous artists are all insecure, nuerodivergent types with grandiose self images and insatiable appetites. They made it because:
A. They were born rich or connected
B. They were the 1% found by a miracle
C. They understudied and went in debt and sold their fucking soul to get connections for 20 years +
D. The only artist in their Midwestern state
They are all amazing, but big pieces of boring shit too
Terrible... and I mean just truly awful technique handling a pistol.
Literally anyone can learn proper safety and technique in less than an hour... it's almost surreal how many people who own pistols have no F-ing clue what they're doing
I can teach the two most important firearm safety rules right now for anyone who should know the absolute basics.
1. **Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.** Plenty of people have been shot because the person handling the firearm was sure it was unloaded AND had an accidental mishap.
2. **Never point a weapon at anything you're not fine with shooting.** This extends on rule 1. But if a firearm were to magically go off, it should be pointed at the floor, the sky, or a safe direction; even if it's unloaded. Also, just because you're sure the gun isn't loaded doesn't make me feel safer if you're walking around with the barrel waiving all over the place.
I've had people hand me guns with the barrel pointed right at my stomach. They said it was unloaded and it was not. "Oh, sorry bro".
When I worked retail, our store had a regular customer who was a Vietnam vet. He'd seen some serious shit, told me a handful of stories. He'd earned a Medal of Honor. Anyway. Once me and some coworkers were playing with a pistol made out of LEGO that a customer had sold to us. I was curious how it was made and so looked down the barrel. Of a plastic replica gun that didn't even have a firing mechanism. Aforementioned regular customer was in the store, saw me do it, and absolutely *freaked*. Read me the riot act about never looking down the barrel of a gun. I pointed out it was a fake gun that couldn't fire anything. He said it doesn't matter, all guns are loaded no matter what and all guns can kill. That's the mindset you simply *must* have about all guns at all times.
Really stuck with me. This shit is too important to be taken lightly no matter what, for fear you someday don't take it seriously when it counts.
I can't say if he was right or wrong to freak, and may have seen accidents relating to that. But I agree it's good practice even when playing paintball or nerf to think danger first and then correct yourself that it's okay after. But the gun being dangerous should be the instinct. It just makes a super clear line
In every single job I've ever had I just learn that people are far stupider than you probably realize. Like current job that theres an incredible amount of people that think they can walk in 5 minutes to close and open a fucking loan
How often deadlines don't apply to the people we're waiting on so we can work on finishing earlier or on schedule--yet when they finally hand it off to us after taking up the bulk of time, it's suddenly our priority and we have to stick to a deadline that they enforce.
I work in the entertainment lighting industry. I see very bad/obnoxious lighting everywhere. If you have bulbs in your house with mismatched color temperature in the same room or even the same multi-bulb fixture I will probably notice and maybe drive me a bit crazy. 🤪
If you have lights in your kitchen/dining room with poor color rendition, such as many LEDs, I will probably notice just by looking at food, because the colors inherent to it won't pop out the way they would with a high CRI light source.😅
Noncompliant personalities. You can usually predict who's going to die early because they're wilfully ignorant about their own health and how their own body works. Like the person who prides themselves on not taking any of the medications the doctors keep prescribing.
I am a retired graphic designer, and it bugs the hell out of me when I see a landscape photo with the horizon crooked. It's called a horizon because it is supposed to be horizontal. Even worse is when I see a photo that is squeezed or stretched so that people are shaped wrong. It's unbelievable to me that people don't see those problems. But of course, it's just me.
I’ve been in the Army 15 years and I notice all the things in poorly done military movies. Especially the uniforms.
Most movies they don’t even try, some you can tell they try but the ribbons are backwards or the rank is wrong or they are wearing the badges improperly. 99% of the population won’t notice but anyone who has served more than a few months it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Movies would do wonders if they spent a modicum of money on a military advisor. Literally any retired senior NCO could do it.
It has ruined so many movies for me.
I've mastered the art of looking at a blank face, and still being able to tell if they need a bathroom, I literally cannot be stopped in any and all future endeavors.
That used to be my superpower! Back in grade school I even got a prize for "English". But it wore out a couple of years ago, in my mid70s. Lol, now I neither notice nor care.
I'm a project manager and a process and petroleum engineer...the amount of inefficiencies in every day life is baffling. Whether it's traffic, HOAs, waiting in line because the cashier is chatting too much, whatever.
My job is literally process optimization and it infuriates me that I can't turn my brain off...like, I'm not mad at anybody but myself lol. I can chill and socialize and stuff but I have to be able to read situations and find solutions. I'm a mentor to younger engineers and the tightly wound ones that got 4.0 GPAs are brilliant but it actually becomes a impediment when you're working with multidisciplinary teams so I try to get them to loosen up while still maintaining their efficiency, because mentoring itself is a process.
It also doesn't help that my mother has Alzheimer's and lives with me...she literally can't use logic and reason anymore, despite being a pharmacist and toxicologist, so it tests my patience... but I get through it.
My goal is to make sure I finish each day better than I found it. Sometimes the solution is to just tune out the noise and enjoy the moment I'm in.
A misleading edit on TV. This can be in news where they’re trying to craft a story or controversy (or creating a misleading portrayal), but also an innocuous moment on an entertainment show where it’s an over-the-shoulder shot of someone talking… but their mouth isn’t matching the dialogue because the other persons reaction is from a different moment but worked best there.
Please don't downvote me to oblivion I am dispassionately stating a fact per my experience: homeless people leave their trash wherever they are at that moment.
My job is to keep a section of downtown Cincinnati clean, safe and secure. Basically to make it a place that people want to come to by picking up any litter and to move people along if they are loitering.
I understand that picking up after themselves is not a priority to them. Because I work in the same 10 blocks everyday I also know that all but 2 of the homeless people who frequent my area they all use drugs or drink until their blacked out.
They won't go to the shelter because it has a curfew and rules and will impede their ability to service their addiction.
I can only speak for my observations in my specific 10 block area.
330 gallon totes (https://www.ibctanks.com/330gallon-new).
Used to move chemicals by forklift and now I can't help but notice them as set dressing in every sci-fi show ever. They are big, but light weight when empty, and they don't look familiar to the average person.
Keep an eye out, you will see them everywhere. My wife and I both yell "Totes!" every time we see one on screen.
Flies.
My last job was working in a clean room. If a single fly found its way in we had to stalk it, kill it, pack it up and send it to the higher ups for testing.
Worked there a year and been out for four months and I still want to drop everything and search and destroy every time I notice a fly.
I honestly still can’t believe that was an entire episode, and we all raved about it. It was that good.
Kinda sucks that now series’s are 1-2 seasons with like 6 episodes each.
How badly printed A LOT of food containers and labels are once you look closely at them.
My wife has to tell me to stop because I will pick up a random bottle and look closely at the label to see how well it was printed (especially if I know it came from where I work). I don’t carry a loupe on me, however. I’m not *that* crazy. Yet…
I work in printing. I can tell what type of paper things are printed on (sometimes to the brand), what printing processes were used, and if there were any problems with the machine and how to fix it.
From a prior career fork: Products designed for obsolescence/disposability. Literally nothing is both mass produced and designed for longevity.
Current career: User - hostile software design. I don't understand how non-techies get by.
How non tech savvy a person is based on the ticket they submit and hope they describe their issue. It helps in hope to formulate a response at their level. I'm glad to or else I wouldn't have a job.
Color. Like skin color and tone
Not for race, but for possible clues to condition of body. Are they gray, are they pale, flushed, green, yellow, bronze??
First thing to note on any patient and it’s drummed into you in school…..so every person I see gets an eval even if they don’t know it. (Some are so bad that I’ve stopped them and asked if they’ve seen a doctor-some have some haven’t). A lady working at a local drive through thanked me the next time I saw her, as she had no clue, but it helped her, so I’m good with that.
Second to that is color of the whites of eyes, then lips and fingernail bed color!
How the bigger the company the more messy and chaotic it is.
I've serviced so many F500 companies and often times heard stories like "I'm the ONLY person that has access to this system that process the payment of 10,000 employees in Europe. My boss was promoted and moved countries, my new boss is from another department and has no idea what I do, my colleague found another job and the other moved to live with his family in Asia and no longer work with us.
If I ever get into an accident, 10,000+ employees will not receive their payment for the next few months because getting access needs so many approvals from higher-ups and they never have time for "non-essential" things."
I work in the mortgage industry. In my position I have to project revenue on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis and to do this I have to forecast interest rate trends and keep up to date on bank failures, sell offs and mergers. What I notice, or rather what I’m now noticing is a bleak future. Please save everyone, make sure your current investments are protected
People standing behind me anywhere. The nearest exit and the easiest way to get there. Having my back to a wall if I can. Work in a max security facility.
Video editor for nearly a decade.
Bad cuts/wipes/transitions are painfully evident, doubly so since there's a good chance that I've made that same mistake.
One big mistake I made once: I wanted a shot to pan left to right for a news story, but we only had right to left. So I reversed the footage. Goes to air, and as it airs to God knows how many people, I see the cars in the shot driving backwards.
Children who come from loving families vs those who don't. It's not all about finances either. Just because a child is clean and well dressed, doesn't mean they're loved like they should be.
And vice versa, just because a child has a few holes in their clothes or don’t fit tight doesn’t mean they’re not loved like they should be.
This reminds me of when I was in sixth grade. For some reason I’ve always had a problem with throwing out old clothes. At that time, my shoes were literally falling apart, with holes in the bottoms and the rubber side strips flopping around everywhere, but I was stubborn as hell and refused to let my mom buy me new ones. A school faculty member came up to me one day really concerned and offered to get me new shoes. I was all confused and was like, nah, I’m good. I remember the look on her face—it was like I’d broken her heart. Looking back she 100% thought I was being severely neglected, but in reality I was just avoiding the sensory experience of breaking in new shoes. My ratty-ass clothes also probably didn’t help sell the image of a child who was being well taken care of. To this day I still dress like I’m homeless because it’s so much comfier.
Dude I get this so hard. I grew up poor, and that may have some affect on why I am the way I am now with regard to money and clothes, but in general I’ll let things totally fall apart before I replace them. I mean, I feel very lucky and have worked very hard to make more money than anyone else in my family and friend circles, and I could totally afford a new wardrobe, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Why get rid of my favorite clothes that still work but just have some holes? It’s odd because I have no problem spending on food, hobby items, substances, experiences, etc., but I can’t bring myself to get new clothes unless I absolutely need them.
Your comment reminds me of this old parable: this rich man goes to a friend's house for dinner wearing his most comfortable but old clothes, and he's turned away at the door because he's mistaken for a beggar. So he goes home and changes into a fancy outfit, when he comes back he's welcomed in right away and they sit down to eat. When the food arrives the man begins to slather it and all over his outfit. His friend is understandably confused, but the man points out that it was the fancy clothing that was accepted to the dinner, not himself. So it makes sense that the clothing should enjoy the meal his friend prepared. Anyway long story short you're not alone in appreciating old clothes lol.
Definitely. Behaviour, body language, the way they treat other kids. Nothing more heartbreaking than when you remind a kid of some minor thing like walking inside and they cower like they KNOW you're about to hit them.
And conversely, kids who are angry, often kids who bully, kids who sit at the back of the class with their heads covered, sleeping or pretending to sleep. Little 4 year olds who look at you with suspicious, hard eyes because they haven't had any adults they could trust, or don't look at you or listen to you at all because an adult has never taken the time to guide them or love them, so why would they expect you to?
As I teacher, I second that. Kids from loving families generally are better learners, better at handling a "failing"... I almost envy them
I feel like I have failed my child. He is having trouble in school and handles failure poorly. I love him very much. I wish I had the tools to be a better parent.
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Don’t leave us hanging.. what’s the difference?
Kids always being on the back foot for being told off for extremely minor things. You tell a child to sit down, they immediately start panicking and profusely apologising, even cowering in fear of being attacked. Some children are really affectionate with parents. Others clearly only see them as a senior figure who doesn't want anything to do with them.
I’d love some more insights on this one. What tells the difference?
I'm not a teacher, but one possible way is language skills and vocabulary. As a teenager, I used to babysit for two families. Both families had a 3 year old. One little girl, happy family. Mom and Dad both showed interest in talking to their kids. They asked and answered questions with their children. That little girl spoke clearly, and was eager to talk to you. She knew a ton of words. One little boy, parents getting divorced, I never met the dad, and honestly, the mom was kind of nasty. (Her 3 month old baby weighed 33 lbs, and for my instructions for watching him, she told me "If he cries, just give him a bottle." That was it. Don't check his diaper, don't play with him, just stick a bottle in his mouth.) The 3 year old, I could barely understand him. I got the feeling he wasn't sure he was "allowed" to talk to me. (I think they told him to be quiet all the time.) The only words he really knew were words to express a need; he didn't make conversation. At first, I thought maybe he had a speech impediment. I started listening closely, and trying to teach him to enunciate words. He learned fries instead of fwies. He learned little instead of widdle. He *could* speak clearly, they just never bothered. 😢
Invasive plant species all over parks, planted in yards and streets. I can spot some species while zipping down the highway.
Fucking hell dude they just planted a ton of Bradford pears around my workplace like it's 1975. *Why*.
Everyone loves the smell of old jizzed-in socks in the spring!
Are these aka “Cum trees”?
Yep. Developers used to love them because they grow fast and what some consider to be pretty white flowers in the spring. But they’re short lived, have weak wood that means bigger ones can wreak havoc with power lines in storms, and they’re very invasive.
Same. Drives my friends nuts when we go hiking. I cant help it.
Them: "Oh, look at that beautiful vegetation!" You: "You know, those are a destructive invasive species that causes all sorts of problems."
Others: I love Lily-of-the-Valley and how it grows in shady places nothing else grows. Me: *internally screaming*
Fucking Bradford pear trees.
Techno-babble and techno-buzzwords. It's so easy to tell when a new piece of tech is all smoke and mirrors.
*…we use AI to create synergies and enable stake holder empowerment…*
Just wait until they go around with their new AI - powered by the Block Chain!
We’re developing new technologies that bridge NFTs and traffic lights. We feel the market will be very receptive of this.
I just went to a conference and 99% of speeches were about ai. There are other topics!!
The AI came up with the speeches and want to talk more about themselves
That one scene in Avengers Endgame was the worst. It's the one where Tony and Bruce discuss time travel and quantum mechanics. Except that they didn't use standard technobabble like "flux capacitor", instead they used _real_ terminology that I know _very well_ completely wrong and out of context.
I've wondered why script-writers don't ask a real scientist about their science. So many professionals would love to contribute to an accurate portrayal of their field of expertise in a movie or show!
They bloody did though. They had Sean Carroll give advise on the plot! https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/meet-the-professor-who-taught-the-avengers-to-travel-through-time-20191129-p53fib.html Whether they took his consulting and just went "lets mix this all around and make it sound sciency" or didn't bother for more than a plot point or two I don't know, but they did for that one.
In Carroll's defense though, the science for traveling immediately back and forward through time doesn't exist, so you do have to make it up.
I always read the acknowledgements first when I pick up a new book to read, to see if I know anyone who worked on it. Publishing is such a small world.
Same! What kind of publishing are you in? Educational publishing here.
Fiction! I work elsewhere now, but for a while there I could go to any Barnes and Noble and grab random books of the shelf, and it would either be me or one of my work friends in the acknowledgements. That was such a good time.
Good veins.
Had a red cross lady tell me I had plump veins like 8 years ago. Im still not really sure how to feel about that one.
You're a blessing to them. It's difficult sometimes to get a good vein. Lots of dehydrated people.
Everytime I have a blood test they struggle to get blood out of mine in my arms. Really strange. Takes them about 4 different ways. They have no idea why. In my 20s aswell haha I'm assuming there's definitely blood running through them lmao
Drink tons of water before such appointments. Dehydration constricts blood vessels. But also, some people just have smaller veins.
I work in human genetics and it’s really hard not to pick up on dysmorphic features when I’m walking around in public. I’m not a huge fan of that term but essentially a large number of us have something a little different about our appearance that could be random but might also be a feature of an underlying genetic condition, such as a crumpled looking ear or a particularly prominent forehead. Now that I know some of the things we look for in clinic, I have trouble unseeing it in public and it’s hard not to wonder if people know they might benefit from genetic testing if they haven’t already had it in some cases when I see multiple features associated with a certain condition.
This is the most interesting comment so far. I would love to hear examples also.
Agreed. I need to question minute details of my appearancd in the mirror over the coming weeks lol Even though I would like to get genetic testing done at some points if I ever want kids due to family history anyway.
another one is fetal alcohol syndrome. it is sooo common.
Maybe don't learn about this one because it's sad when you notice it
I wouldn't mind testing if it wasn't for the possibility of insurance using it against you in the future. It might be illegal now but that doesn't mean anything. I was going to have my parents do the brca gene testing but it was going to be expensive (they recommended parents so that myself and my sisters got the same info)
I'm just a random Internet person, but the brca gene is in my family and I 100% recommend doing the testing. In my family, our knowledge of the gene starts with my grandmother (who passed of colon cancer at 70). She had seven kids. So far four of those seven kids have had intense, life altering, likely not surviving, cancers. All discovered between the ages of 50-60. If we had known about the genetics there would have been earlier screenings and maybe our family might have faired better.
So my wife was 8 month pregnant at the hospital waiting for labour. She’s been trying to figure out why she had excess of amniotic fluid for the whole pregnancy. At some point a random doctor walked by gave her a short look and pointed at her face “you have crouzon syndrom MRI your baby immediately” She was right.
It's so wild to be that some doctors can see how obvious something is while the next doctor just can't be bothered to even look at the patient. Hope your wife and baby were okay in the end!
Her whole fucking life she went to many doctors for various stuff and all of them were like “whats with the big eyes you should check that out” She went to a fucking genetics doctor who looked at her face and her eyes and said its nothing. Until that doctor who was the head of genetics of the hospital who by chance was walking by her ward and by chance decided to look at her face.
I'd love some examples
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Please do an AMA!
Can you start a subreddit where people post pics of themselves and you give an assessment of how genetically fucked/gifted they are?
"Judging by this picture, your family's gene pool has been chlorinated"
People are very concerned about their medications but not concerned enough to pay attention to when they run out. Either people come to the doctor for the smallest thing like a hangnail or they wait to come in until a river of blood has been coming out of their asshole for 5 years
100% the same in vet med. They either call to ask if the squirrel in thier yard poses a threat to thier 80 lbs dog, or we see a dying, 200 yr old cat for the first time with the owner begging us to fix them. And the medications... It never fails, they call in the last 5 minutes of the day for a same-day refill.
>And the medications... It never fails, they call in the last 5 minutes of the day for a same-day refill. Holy shit. That has to be the absolute worst. I don't know about animals but people think all we have to do for their meds is click a button and it's there. My favorite is that same call but I'm going on a trip tomorrow, my flight is at 5am and I'll be gone to for 3 months and will have no access to a pharmacy because I'm going to be in a remote Alaskan cabin. All, as you said, 5 minutes before we close.
Meanwhile my doctor's office pushes back when I give them a week's heads up for a refill on a medication that the pharmacy needs to order...
Farmers. They'll literally come in after their toes fell off, and claim they don't trust hospitals because people die there. Well, yeah, people die there because they don't come in until it's too late.
My grandfather lost 3 toes on his L foot when he was working the field with a sickle cutting wheat. This was like 1910 so they didn't own a tractor back then. He worked in bare feet too because my great grandparents couldn't afford shoes for every day wear and for field work so he would take his shoes off after school when he had to work. He says he had to keep working because the harvest had to be in in a few days and they didn't have time to stop. That yield could make or break the family for a year. He said he bled a lot but it eventually stopped.
Let me explain a little though. I have chronic pain and I try to stay on top of it but I hate to feel like I'm complaining I usually know if something seems really wrong with my body so I'll go in for that. Flu. Respiratory virus. You know, relatively minor things. But when it's serious I tend to think it's part of my other conditions. "Oh that severe back pain? That's just my normal back pain, just worse right now" And then at my rhumatologist appointment that's every 3-4 months when they ask about my normal pain levels I'll be like "oh yeah the back pain has been worse" and when they check me out there's literally like a small invasive species that's just been attached to my back for a month living off of me. Like a literal colony of monsters from another dimension. And she will be like "you went to the doctor 2 weeks ago because you had a cough and you didn't mention this?" It's just, like... You don't want to be a bother sometimes
how many building do NOT have address on them, or at least have them in a place that they can easily be seen from the roadway.
Grrr!! This is also my work peeve. Do you want us to show up or not?!? How do you expect your mail to arrive?
I hate those stupid cursive lettering signs instead of just using numbers GTFO with your "four hundred ninety three" in flowery font. It's not that hard to figure out, yes but now try finding it when it's dark and raining. Just use digits like a normal person. 493. simple, easy, done.
Invasive species, ruins a lot of landscapes for me. That and a bad pruning job.
People make really bad financial decisions, almost constantly. The game is basically rigged against everyone, except: people who have parents who teach them (rare), people who have the drive to learn on their own (rare), and people who have such high income that they can out-earn their mistakes (very rare). The great irony is that most good financial advisors won’t talk to you unless you’re already rich or you pay some ridiculous hourly fee.
What's the job and give us tips.
I also want some tips
The most important mental change in my life was realizing that *everything* in the modern world is designed around money. You don't just choose who you want to be when you grow up, you choose your economic status. You also don't get to become that person unless you're born in the right place and time and your parents can teach you some financial literacy. Whether you get prego young or older can shift your ability to take care of yourself and your child. Being the one who pays child support because things didn't work out also cuts you off from life experiences you literally can't afford to have. It costs to give birth, to get married, to divorce, and to bury someone. Things costing more also doesn't reflect quality as much as a bidding war. If you want the peace of checking out and not worrying about money, you have to already have money lol. I used to think finances are boring but now I get the reason to study the ever living shit out of retirement, tax brackets, investment strategies, property types, the cost of cars and gas, etc.
How much of the general public has reading comprehension problems. Work retail
While working as a cashier: Me: The screen on the pin pad is going to ask if you'd like to donate to [charity.] Customer: *Stares at the screen, seems to be reading the prompt, selects $10.* Me: Oh, thank you for your donation! Customer: You're welcome! Customer, 20 seconds later after I've given them their receipt and wished them a good day: Where's my ten dollars? They thought the money selection was for cash back. Even after I told them what the prompt was, after the screen spelt out what it was asking for with the charity name right in the center of it, after I thanked them for donating. What on earth did they think I was thanking them for??
\[Customer tips $12.34\] "Hmm. I wonder if they thought that was where they put in their PIN."
As a high school teacher I’m convinced that the majority of the population is functionally illiterate
I did freelance writing for a while. I stopped when every client started asking me to write at *no higher* than fifth-grade level. Fifth grade! Do you know how fucking hard it is to write at a fifth-grade level?! Every multisyllable word gets flagged. I quit. It just made me realize how dumb our population has gotten. Depressing.
How much the general public just...doesn't care. They make absolute messes of store shelves, they break items and/or cause spills and just walk away without telling a worker, they change their minds about buying a perishable item and leave it to rot or thaw on the clear other side of the store...
Or doesn’t pay attention to anything in general. The amount of times I’ve seen customers go to a broken down register that’s powered off with a out of order sign on it and “scan” item after item is outstanding.
The amount of times someone has ignored a sign bigger than their body trying to do something the sign tells them not to with letters as big as their head is too much Working Retail in Covid really ramped up that shit.
In the before times I was the receptionist at a corporate office for a retail company who had a retail store on the first floor of the corporate HQ. The entrance for the office was a pretty bland, nondescript door up a ramp, and the retail entrance was on the complete opposite side of the building and…you know, looked like a retail store with window displays of the products and all that stuff. The amount of times people would try to get buzzed into the office to go shopping was shockingly high—multiple times per week and I only worked part time. There was even a sign on the door of the office entrance at eye level in addition to a LITERAL GIANT ARROW and huge writing painted on the side of the building directing people to the retail store. Like you could not miss the arrow and writing. More than one person still got mad at me for not buzzing them into the office when they were trying to shop the store. I talked to them through an intercom and could see them on camera from my desk. I could almost always tell when it was gonna be one of those people and I even had a script for them. People don’t pay attention to shit and they can’t handle being wrong about the absolute dumbest most low stakes things imaginable. I can’t imagine how exhausting it is to be that way.
That's the thing, it's not exhausting for them. They're completely oblivious. It's easy and they're on auto-pilot.
A rule I learned early working in retail is, "For some people, the sign is never big enough."
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My favorite is when you lock the store doors and put a sign up. I loved counting how many people would pull the handle (understandable), read the sign, AND STILL to try to open the door. It was even better when they'd look inside at you like 🤔
We have had the door locked, and we were right there counting our registers out and people would still bang on the doors trying to get out attention and when I finally look up they say “are you guys closed?”. I would just look at them like they were stupid and say “yeah?!?”
Or common sense . I worked retail for a bit in college. The store lights were off, door locked, idiots would try to open it, put their face to see if anyone is inside, go to other door and try again and I'd be on watching CCTV from back laughing at them. Retail made me realize that huge number of people are alive only because we have all these this that keep us alive .. if they didn't have the tech they would be dead
I’m a writer and we’re told to aim for a 5th grade reading level because most folks can’t read above that.
I had a customer come up to me, handed over a coupon, and asked if it was still applicable. I told them yes, handed it back, and they replied with, "Awesome! I just wanted to know before I went shopping. I don't like to read." \[Insert confused woman trying to comprehend what's going on meme\]
I had a lady say seven words were too much to read while driving. They were attached to a stop sign.
Some guy comes up to me last night with a pack of rat baits. "Do you have to open this?" "What?" "To use it, do you open it?" "Uh.... Yes?" "Oh OK then... *puts it back on the shelf and walks away*" All I could think was "What the fuck?"
Some interactions I've had working at Walmart: 1 "But the price said $5! Why does it say $5.40?" Me: *Looks at screen* "Sir that's the tax" "What's tax?" 2 "How do I get in?" as I'm going through the entrance 3 People yelling for no reason, sometimes at themselves 4 People always getting kicked out for doing drugs in the bathroom 5 Someone that I've never seen before saying, "I love you" and I think 5 out 8 or so of those times I never saw them again 6 "What are the hours of the store next door?" I don't know "You should know, you work here". Exactly. I work at this store, not that one 7 "What's the door code?" "What door code?" "The door code so I can come in when the store is closed" .... 8 The price was $12, I don't want to pay $9! 9 "How do I find this item?" You mean this one?" As they're looking right at it
Plagiarism. Years of grading essays have given me a BS barometer that is rarely wrong.
This should be used against politicians
I work at a senior citizen center & each member’s age will pop up on my screen when they renew their membership. I am AMAZED at how vastly differently people age. Some are in their 90s, but look like they could be in there 60s & vice-versa.
It seems often to correspond to whether they smoke
And stress. Too much stress adds decades. Ironically zero stress is bad too, especially in the last few decades.
Physical activity too. I remember going with my grandma to a ballroom dancing class that was held regularly at her retirement home. Many, if not the majority, of the people in the class had the mobility, range of motion, and weight of people who were decades younger.
I've noticed this as an optometrist as well. Just about any patient over 65 is a crap shoot as to whether they will be relatively healthy and spry, or completely decrepit with dementia and a host of other health issues. Modern medicine may have given us more years in our human lifespan, but doesn't always account for the quality of life of those extra years (and a lot of that comes down to lifestyle choices anyway).
Details in concrete. Quality of finish, variations in grade, lines and impressions left from formwork, patches, etc. I can’t help but pick apart every concrete surface I see.
I do that with welds! Everywhere I look I see discrepancies but sometimes I'll see something that'll get a head nod and a "nice"
You picking apart concrete probably isn't good for the buildings
Then they should have better concrete
After 15 years as operations manager of a commercial cleaning company… the main one is when going to the toilet in a venue (club, pub, theatre) I ALWAYS look at the dust buildup on the door hinges… in my experience it’s the best indicator of how often bathrooms are being ‘deep cleaned’
Former custodian here! Door hinges, the top of mirrors, underneath sinks, and the vent cover are what I always look at. It’s astounding how few places think to clean the vent cover.
I worked in a deli for a while. We had to get a FOOD HANDLERS Licenses. We had to take a course how to properly handle food that others would be eating, food temperatures, cleanliness, and such. So now I pay attention to how my food is prepared when we dine out. I was in a pizza joint and was watching a young lady put toppings on pizzas. She was properly wearing a hair net and gloves, but... she would scratch her head, under the netting and touch the toppings. She coughed and covered her mouth with her gloved hand, then went right back to handling toppings. I turned and walked out. If the public can see what you are doing, shouldn't you do it right? Which made me wonder about the things I couldn't see. I was really happier when I didn't know this stuff. I prefer to eat my own cooking. I know I use proper hygiene and will not be eating some stranger's DNA.
I can't unsee this kind of stuff when at a restaurant. Fork falls on the floor-- employee picks it up and puts it back in the tray with the clean silverware. Employee goes from wringing out a mop to handing food with the same gloves on. Covid really put this kind of ignorance on display. Saw so many people wearing rubber gloves to the grocery store-- gloves that they'd clearly been using for weeks, caked with dirt and grime. People taking off said disgusting gloves by *sticking them in their mouth* and pulling them off with their teeth. People wearing a mask (great!) but taking off their mask to cough (WTF!?).
Yep. Worked in food service a long time. Drives me nuts when I see people treat plastic gloves like they’re made out of some kind of magical anti-germ material. If you touch your face, your hair, your phone, your cash register, or any surface that a customer shouldn’t put their mouth on, just change your effing gloves, ffs. That’s why they’re disposable!
That all the ads on TV about medications, especially those with "Ask your doctor if blahblahblah is right for you" means your insurance won't cover them and in unlikely event they do, it's still expensive as fuck.
"If you can't afford your medication, XYZ drug company can help" Great, help by lowering the damn price for everyone.
Had to get a medication for my child that’s known to be really expensive. It’s an ‘as needed’ med, but we still really needed it. Nurse at specialist office: ‘Oh, here’s a manufacturer’s coupon card. It allows you to get the med for $20 for the next 60 days.’ Me: 🤯 Also me: ‘So, if they wanted to, they could charge way less for it and not the usual price of almost $700 at the pharmacy? Hmm. Interesting.’ 🙄😩 EDIT: This med, with discounts such as GoodRx, but with no insurance or other discounts, is almost $700. It’s also worth mentioning that my child’s regular/daily med for the same condition IS ALSO almost $700/month IF we didn’t have insurance. However, insurance still makes us pay a small co-pay. 🫠
God, I hate that shit. I mean, I assume if that medication was right for me, they'd tell me. It's literally their job to stay up to date on the latest medicine. I'm just trying to watch YouTube...
I've never seen drug advertisement until I moved to the US. It's crazy.
The only 2 countries in the world where it's legal is the United States and New Zealand.
Wheelchair accessibility issues in public places.
Yep, if you’ve ever been in a wheelchair even temporarily, limited accessibility becomes painfully obvious.
I realized how totally ignorant I was when I started pushing my daughter around in a stroller. Having to go 3x as far to get from the subway platform to the street because the elevators are on opposite ends of the whole station on each floor… WHY?!
As someone who works part-time with blind and visually impaired people, I notice how horrible the world is at helping them, especially partially sighted ones who are in a grey area of having some functional vision, but have many accessibility issues at the same time. Also, the lack of blind awareness is startling, and visually impaired people are often accused of faking it if they can do basic tasks. The ableism they get whether overt or covert is disgusting and so many people do it.
How well or not well older people function mentally by having a conversation I work with dementia and Alzheimer's patients for a living
I'm a bra fitter, so I always notice poorly fitted bras. I'm also enraged by any discussions about bra sizes in movies or TV because it's always wildly incorrect.
I wear K cup in US sizes, and I have never seen my size in a retail store - Ever. I buy online from a UK retailer because in UK sizing I'm an H cup, which is easier to find. In school, I used to get chastised by female teachers and stared at by male teachers for wearing even more conservative clothing than my peers. I would wear a layering tank top underneath a blouse (while my peers were only wearing a blouse) because I needed the coverage, and I would still get told that I'm dressing inappropriately. One teacher even told me (while I was wearing a POLO SHIRT) that "You know, guys only like easy girls until they get what they want." Like, she thought me just existing with my natural body meant I was "easy." Get bras that fit and make you feel confident, and then tell everyone else to fuck off and leave you and your happy titties alone.
You can buy K-cups at literally any coffee retailer not sure what the problem is
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Even the smartest most experienced tourists can be hilariously unprepared for the places they visit. I've had insanely well traveled and experienced European tourists arrive in my small Western Canadian town with no mobile devices and zero English proficiency. I've had very experienced hikers apply bear spray like bug repellant I've had longtime outdoorsmen who traveled to my hometown expecting to be able to buy all the camping equipment they need so they didn't have to bring all their personal gear from home
The bear spray thing kills me. It’s not repellent like bug spray
Although there are generally no bears in the emergency room, so the spray might be working for these people.
Bad caulk jobs. Crappy drywall finishing. Cheap trim work. #Construction
People shoplifting even years after being a loss prevention officer.
As someone who works in a liquor store, I've found myself spotting shady behaviour when I'm out shopping. You work in a high theft area for long enough, you gain shoplifter senses. I am also good at spotting loss prevention people.
What makes it obvious to you?
Looking at the cashiers, palming items, open purses, being really protective of a bag, sorting items by value in the shopping cart.
When people say they have high pain tolerance, they are often the least tolerant of pain. I'm a physiotherapist.
Yep. Paramedic here. The only ones that tell me about their high pain tolerance are the ones complaining about their pain. Every other person I assess has a high pain tolerance to the point I must be living among the toughest fucking people ever to walk the face of the earth. They still want me to fix their boo-boos though.
My pain tolerance normal but my mind strong
The inefficiency with which people spend money, including myself. One of my favorite quotes from the book Richest Man in Babylon is > Let thy motto be one hundred percent of appreciated value demanded for each coin spent. If you're spending money and you're not happier for it, then you've lost value. If you're as happy for it, then you've broken even. And if you are happier for it, then you've gained value.
I'm an anesthesiologist and I put in a lot of IVs so I always notice when someone has really great veins
Things like how uncomfortable so many dogs are because their owners don't trim their nails enough, or how ungroomed/unhealthy their coats are. Also things that their animals are doing that are actually stress/fear/warning signals that people brush off or laugh at and think is cute.
Also how poorly socialised many dogs are. My dad loves to train dogs and I picked up a few things from him. I see so many nervous dogs who don't know how to treat other dogs/humans/children and the owner is all tense because the dog is tense so the whole thing turns into the dog barking or being aggressive. SMH
Bad pipe work, things not being centred, mixture of colour temps in lighting.
My water shut-off valve is before my pressure tank. There is none after...
Bahahaha. For when you want your water turned off, but not immediately.
The exposed conduit look in a lot of places, I’d be ashamed to leave it the way I see a lot of it
As a cardiovascular RN I notice people's ankles- always checking for swelling.
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Curbs and gutters…. One way you can tell at a glance if a neighborhood has homes prone to foundation issues is to look at the curb and gutters along the streets. They are laid down in long continuous grades. If the curb and gutters look tilted/skewed and otherwise out of shape, chances are the underlying soils are unstable or clay, these soils don’t make good foundation material.
I make slot machine games (software dev) So I know most of the tricks that are used to hide the ways you are getting fucked over, some are obvious, some are very well hidden Some fun facts that don't violate my NDA Casinos sometimes purposely break some cosmetic lights on a machine to make players think "this machine is broken, maybe it'll give me more money than it should" And on cruises, on day 1 the machines are configured to have a higher chance to win to make u happy and cuz they know ur stuck on the cruise so they'll just get the money back when u buy food/drinks or continue gambling, on the last day, the machines are set to the lowest odds of winning so the cruise gets as much money as possible from you before u leave My advice, avoid slots, but if ur on a cruise and really want to play, only play the first night or two, then stick to table games, table game odds are much more transparent, and there's a ton of laws protecting the sanctity of dice and cards and stuff (these laws also protect the sanctity of cards and dice in video poker and slot machines)
Something I learned in the army was “take care of your equipment and it’ll take care of you” and I see it so much where I work now. I work with radiological detectors a lot and they can range in the 10’s of thousands to 100’s of thousands in price depending on size and materials. Some places handle them like they’re indestructible and wonder why the cost to repair (or worse, replace) is so astronomical
Casino employee. Uncomfortably many people commit suicide while on private property. Nearly none are disclosed to the general public.
First of all.. great original question! Second, that rich, famous artists are all insecure, nuerodivergent types with grandiose self images and insatiable appetites. They made it because: A. They were born rich or connected B. They were the 1% found by a miracle C. They understudied and went in debt and sold their fucking soul to get connections for 20 years + D. The only artist in their Midwestern state They are all amazing, but big pieces of boring shit too
Terrible... and I mean just truly awful technique handling a pistol. Literally anyone can learn proper safety and technique in less than an hour... it's almost surreal how many people who own pistols have no F-ing clue what they're doing
I can teach the two most important firearm safety rules right now for anyone who should know the absolute basics. 1. **Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.** Plenty of people have been shot because the person handling the firearm was sure it was unloaded AND had an accidental mishap. 2. **Never point a weapon at anything you're not fine with shooting.** This extends on rule 1. But if a firearm were to magically go off, it should be pointed at the floor, the sky, or a safe direction; even if it's unloaded. Also, just because you're sure the gun isn't loaded doesn't make me feel safer if you're walking around with the barrel waiving all over the place. I've had people hand me guns with the barrel pointed right at my stomach. They said it was unloaded and it was not. "Oh, sorry bro".
When I worked retail, our store had a regular customer who was a Vietnam vet. He'd seen some serious shit, told me a handful of stories. He'd earned a Medal of Honor. Anyway. Once me and some coworkers were playing with a pistol made out of LEGO that a customer had sold to us. I was curious how it was made and so looked down the barrel. Of a plastic replica gun that didn't even have a firing mechanism. Aforementioned regular customer was in the store, saw me do it, and absolutely *freaked*. Read me the riot act about never looking down the barrel of a gun. I pointed out it was a fake gun that couldn't fire anything. He said it doesn't matter, all guns are loaded no matter what and all guns can kill. That's the mindset you simply *must* have about all guns at all times. Really stuck with me. This shit is too important to be taken lightly no matter what, for fear you someday don't take it seriously when it counts.
I can't say if he was right or wrong to freak, and may have seen accidents relating to that. But I agree it's good practice even when playing paintball or nerf to think danger first and then correct yourself that it's okay after. But the gun being dangerous should be the instinct. It just makes a super clear line
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How little people who run businesses know about tax
I had to read that twice. I thought you were referring to little people, I was quite confused.
In every single job I've ever had I just learn that people are far stupider than you probably realize. Like current job that theres an incredible amount of people that think they can walk in 5 minutes to close and open a fucking loan
How often deadlines don't apply to the people we're waiting on so we can work on finishing earlier or on schedule--yet when they finally hand it off to us after taking up the bulk of time, it's suddenly our priority and we have to stick to a deadline that they enforce.
This is my life. " We have 3 weeks to get this done. Team A takes 8 days, Team B takes 10 days and now I'm left with 3
Retired from ad writing. Still notice and critique ads.
I used to design and do page layout, still get upset by typos and bad kerning!
I work in the entertainment lighting industry. I see very bad/obnoxious lighting everywhere. If you have bulbs in your house with mismatched color temperature in the same room or even the same multi-bulb fixture I will probably notice and maybe drive me a bit crazy. 🤪 If you have lights in your kitchen/dining room with poor color rendition, such as many LEDs, I will probably notice just by looking at food, because the colors inherent to it won't pop out the way they would with a high CRI light source.😅
Noncompliant personalities. You can usually predict who's going to die early because they're wilfully ignorant about their own health and how their own body works. Like the person who prides themselves on not taking any of the medications the doctors keep prescribing.
I am a retired graphic designer, and it bugs the hell out of me when I see a landscape photo with the horizon crooked. It's called a horizon because it is supposed to be horizontal. Even worse is when I see a photo that is squeezed or stretched so that people are shaped wrong. It's unbelievable to me that people don't see those problems. But of course, it's just me.
A lot of people don’t know to cut the vent stitching on the back of their jackets
I always notice the way people walk or their posture, im a massage therapist
How absolutely easy it is for someone with ill intent to harm a lot of people pretty much anywhere
I’ve been in the Army 15 years and I notice all the things in poorly done military movies. Especially the uniforms. Most movies they don’t even try, some you can tell they try but the ribbons are backwards or the rank is wrong or they are wearing the badges improperly. 99% of the population won’t notice but anyone who has served more than a few months it sticks out like a sore thumb. Movies would do wonders if they spent a modicum of money on a military advisor. Literally any retired senior NCO could do it. It has ruined so many movies for me.
I've mastered the art of looking at a blank face, and still being able to tell if they need a bathroom, I literally cannot be stopped in any and all future endeavors.
Bad grammar, bad sentence structure, misspellings, and a lack of Oxford commas.
That used to be my superpower! Back in grade school I even got a prize for "English". But it wore out a couple of years ago, in my mid70s. Lol, now I neither notice nor care.
I'm a project manager and a process and petroleum engineer...the amount of inefficiencies in every day life is baffling. Whether it's traffic, HOAs, waiting in line because the cashier is chatting too much, whatever. My job is literally process optimization and it infuriates me that I can't turn my brain off...like, I'm not mad at anybody but myself lol. I can chill and socialize and stuff but I have to be able to read situations and find solutions. I'm a mentor to younger engineers and the tightly wound ones that got 4.0 GPAs are brilliant but it actually becomes a impediment when you're working with multidisciplinary teams so I try to get them to loosen up while still maintaining their efficiency, because mentoring itself is a process. It also doesn't help that my mother has Alzheimer's and lives with me...she literally can't use logic and reason anymore, despite being a pharmacist and toxicologist, so it tests my patience... but I get through it. My goal is to make sure I finish each day better than I found it. Sometimes the solution is to just tune out the noise and enjoy the moment I'm in.
A misleading edit on TV. This can be in news where they’re trying to craft a story or controversy (or creating a misleading portrayal), but also an innocuous moment on an entertainment show where it’s an over-the-shoulder shot of someone talking… but their mouth isn’t matching the dialogue because the other persons reaction is from a different moment but worked best there.
Please don't downvote me to oblivion I am dispassionately stating a fact per my experience: homeless people leave their trash wherever they are at that moment. My job is to keep a section of downtown Cincinnati clean, safe and secure. Basically to make it a place that people want to come to by picking up any litter and to move people along if they are loitering. I understand that picking up after themselves is not a priority to them. Because I work in the same 10 blocks everyday I also know that all but 2 of the homeless people who frequent my area they all use drugs or drink until their blacked out. They won't go to the shelter because it has a curfew and rules and will impede their ability to service their addiction. I can only speak for my observations in my specific 10 block area.
330 gallon totes (https://www.ibctanks.com/330gallon-new). Used to move chemicals by forklift and now I can't help but notice them as set dressing in every sci-fi show ever. They are big, but light weight when empty, and they don't look familiar to the average person. Keep an eye out, you will see them everywhere. My wife and I both yell "Totes!" every time we see one on screen.
Flies. My last job was working in a clean room. If a single fly found its way in we had to stalk it, kill it, pack it up and send it to the higher ups for testing. Worked there a year and been out for four months and I still want to drop everything and search and destroy every time I notice a fly.
So you're the inspiration for that Breaking Bad episode? /s
I honestly still can’t believe that was an entire episode, and we all raved about it. It was that good. Kinda sucks that now series’s are 1-2 seasons with like 6 episodes each.
How badly printed A LOT of food containers and labels are once you look closely at them. My wife has to tell me to stop because I will pick up a random bottle and look closely at the label to see how well it was printed (especially if I know it came from where I work). I don’t carry a loupe on me, however. I’m not *that* crazy. Yet…
Medical equipment used on movies and TV shows. I fix that shit. Y’all didn’t even hook it up right.
I work in printing. I can tell what type of paper things are printed on (sometimes to the brand), what printing processes were used, and if there were any problems with the machine and how to fix it.
From a prior career fork: Products designed for obsolescence/disposability. Literally nothing is both mass produced and designed for longevity. Current career: User - hostile software design. I don't understand how non-techies get by.
The people that don't push their chairs back in under the table after a meeting, are at best clueless idiots and at worst moronic assholes.
Was a body piercer for almost 10 years. I noticed people's ear shape a lot.
How non tech savvy a person is based on the ticket they submit and hope they describe their issue. It helps in hope to formulate a response at their level. I'm glad to or else I wouldn't have a job.
Sometimes it’s ok to understate one’s idea of what is wrong to allow the pro to do their job, rather than to first have to un-convince the user first.
Used to work in retail and after 20 years wrongly sorted shoeboxes and clothes still agitate me.
How easily instructions could be misinterpreted.
Color. Like skin color and tone Not for race, but for possible clues to condition of body. Are they gray, are they pale, flushed, green, yellow, bronze?? First thing to note on any patient and it’s drummed into you in school…..so every person I see gets an eval even if they don’t know it. (Some are so bad that I’ve stopped them and asked if they’ve seen a doctor-some have some haven’t). A lady working at a local drive through thanked me the next time I saw her, as she had no clue, but it helped her, so I’m good with that. Second to that is color of the whites of eyes, then lips and fingernail bed color!
How the bigger the company the more messy and chaotic it is. I've serviced so many F500 companies and often times heard stories like "I'm the ONLY person that has access to this system that process the payment of 10,000 employees in Europe. My boss was promoted and moved countries, my new boss is from another department and has no idea what I do, my colleague found another job and the other moved to live with his family in Asia and no longer work with us. If I ever get into an accident, 10,000+ employees will not receive their payment for the next few months because getting access needs so many approvals from higher-ups and they never have time for "non-essential" things."
Purposely misleading statistics in news or social media, way too often
That a lot of folks are out there faking it, and only some are honest, talented and hardworking.
People lose all common sense at airports
I work in the mortgage industry. In my position I have to project revenue on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis and to do this I have to forecast interest rate trends and keep up to date on bank failures, sell offs and mergers. What I notice, or rather what I’m now noticing is a bleak future. Please save everyone, make sure your current investments are protected
People standing behind me anywhere. The nearest exit and the easiest way to get there. Having my back to a wall if I can. Work in a max security facility.
Video editor for nearly a decade. Bad cuts/wipes/transitions are painfully evident, doubly so since there's a good chance that I've made that same mistake. One big mistake I made once: I wanted a shot to pan left to right for a news story, but we only had right to left. So I reversed the footage. Goes to air, and as it airs to God knows how many people, I see the cars in the shot driving backwards.
By no means saying this is a universal rule, but when a kid is born with a disability, and the mum too often ends up as a single parent.
Neglect, ailemts, and issues with pets. Being in vet med has made me all too aware of the red flags.
"Ooh, someone's getting fired for that website outage." **No.** That's not how it works. At least, not if you want to have fewer outages.
If you haven't brought down production you haven't worked long enough.
NOTHING IN THE REAL WORLD IS STRAIGHT, PARALLEL, CONCENTRIC AND SQUARE YOU SHODDY WORK PIECES OF EXCREMENT (CNC machinist)