30 Times Unaware People Challenged Someone That Was Actually An Expert In That Subject Matter, But Realized It Too Late
It's hard to imagine a more rewarding experience than being challenged to something by a person who doesn't know you're an expert at it. It's right up there with bringing a child into this world and becoming the first person to walk on the Moon.
Recently, a redditor who goes by the nickname Struedolf asked people who were in this position to tell their stories and oh boy, did they respond! From an archer forced to compete with a bow and arrows to a construction worker blamed for property damage, these are just a few priceless examples of the nearly 23K responses Struedolf's post has received. Scroll down to check out more and don't forget to upvote your faves!
This post may include affiliate links.
I guy I went on a date with tried to serenade me with his okay piano skills. He was incredibly patronizing to me and tried to explain to me what the notes were even when I told him I’m also a pianist. So after his endless explanations I asked him to move over on the bench so I can try to play. I’m a two time Carnegie Hall pianist. He never called me back afterwards. Worth it!
Struedolf decided to ask redditors this question after something like this happened to them. To Struedolf's delight, they were on the delivering end. "I didn't really expect my post to receive this much attention so I was kind of shocked," Struedolf told Bored Panda.
However, the abundance of comments made it clear that it's a topic people want to brag about. And why wouldn't they? If someone spends 10,000 hours perfecting a craft and it brought them a pleasurable moment, it's their right to tell the Internet about it.
A buddy mine was at a concert in bad seats and started complaining about it via twitter. All of a sudden the band starts reading some tweets and calls my friend up to sit on stage for a couple songs. They sit him at the piano and during the next song, they jokingly go "ok piano solo!" The crowd laughs for a second but then my buddy just starts jamming out, as he plays piano in his band. Talk about dream moment getting to play with your favorite band
"Reading the stories really was an amazing experience," Struedolf said. "It was really fun to go through everyone's responses and if there was anything I took away from it, it would be to not challenge people to something not knowing how good they are at it."
So there you have it, folks. If you want to establish your dominance by competing with somebody, at least try to figure out beforehand if it's not you who's going to be mopped.
I was a competitive swimmer for 14 years, including 4 years of NCAA, but I'm on the shorter side so people don't assume I was any good.
Was at a friends house on a lake one summer, and a macho guy challenged me to race to a buoy in the middle of the lake, to prove... something, I guess. The lake is deceptively large, about a half mile across, so I warned him that if he isn't a strong swimmer it could be dangerous.
He was running out of gas after about 2 minutes, so I offered to let him off the hook, but he insisted he would finish. I went to the buoy and was swimming back when I found him floundering, so I lifeguard swam him back to the house. His ego took a deserved hit that day.
Don't get cocky around water, even if you think you're a strong swimmer.
I’m a teacher so people try to tell me how to do my job all the time (parents, kids, politicians, etc). How’d it turn out? Welcome to my world, f**kers. Home schooling is a b****, isn’t it? Your kids are kind of horrible, aren’t they? Lessons aren’t that easy to plan, are they?
Meanwhile, I’m drinking a beer at 10am while grading the assignments I posted last week.
For all of you who are hating on the OP. Click on link under post (Motocrossx23). It will take you to the original reddit site, where he explains further that this is satirical. Here's a quote from him: "Parents, this was meant to be satirical: please do not think for a second that we as teachers do not appreciate and sympathize with you all during this ordeal, especially those who are working still!"
When working as a teacher I beat a lot of students in Pokémon battles, cause they didn't think of me being like 15 years ahead of them in fighting experience. Noobs
Wasn’t me, but there’s a story about an old geotechnical engineer who used to work for the company I work for.
Several senior staff had to attend a meeting with the client, and some government regulatory staff who were being awkward and not approving the design.
This geotech guy is pretty much quiet the whole meeting. Throughout the discussion, the government guy keeps referencing this research document and shooting down anything anybody suggests.
Near the end of the meeting geotech asks government guy if he has the research paper with him. He responds yes and places it on the table.
Geotech asks government guy who is the author of the paper? Then slides over a business card. Turns out it’s geotechs own paper that government guy has been referencing to defend his argument.
Government guy went bright red and apparently approved the design the same day
A neighbor on my block in Brooklyn challenged me to a pizza bake-off. I recently catered pizza for my daughters school and word got around the neighborhood my pizza was pretty darn good. My first thought was, "this guy is a Brooklyn native, my pizza will be s**te compared to his!" But there was something about him bragging that I couldn't resist the challenge. He talked up how pizza was in his blood, how his dad ran the pizza place around the corner years ago. I remained silent and let my skills answer for themselves. I got a buddy to let us use one of Baker's Pride ovens at his restaurant. We even had total strangers try our pizzas. Every last person chose my pizza over his. I never mentioned to him that I've worked in pizza places almost every day for the last thirty years. I never mentioned that when I'm not working at a pizza place I'm making pizzas at home at least once every two days. I never mentioned that at nine years old I knew that I wanted to be a pizza man. Here I am 45 and getting ready to start my own pizza business.
Not me but a while back a guy I knew from church growing up posted on facebook something about Crusades and medieval Christianity. A girl responded and gave x, y, z reasons why he was wrong. The guy responded back with you don't know what you are talking about, you need to do your research and linked couple of youtube links of armchair historians/pastors. She hits him back with a dozen or so academic sources and let him know that she was 3 years in a PhD program studying medieval history.
I once challenged a girl who was a friend to foosball, not knowing she grew up with a table in her house and older brothers. I even, jokingly, put money on the game. Well I learned a bit about humility that night.. the icing on the cake was when she drove me to an atm to get her the money
My wife and I were taking an evening cruise for adults in Portsmouth Bay. The ship drove around the shipyard, where my submarine and several others were stationed. My wife and I are having a quiet drink when a really loud know it all starts spouting misinformation about each submarine we are driving by. Calling them all the wrong class, wrong names, etc. When he literally points to my submarine and says "and that is a 637 class" my wife finally speaks up and says "actually that is a 688" . The guy gets all gruff and says "well how would you know?". My wife smiles, hugs my arm and says sweetly "That's my husbands submarine, it is the Minneapolis St Paul, SNN-708." He turned beat red while his date laughed.
I once went to a museum with my sister and her friend, who I hadn't met before. We got to the Greek art bit and her friend started telling me how she was super into Greek myth, and I thought that was cool, because I was, unbeknownst to her, doing a Master's in it at the time and also keeping a blog of myth retellings, which was pretty popular, and it was a relief to have something in common with this stranger.
She then got weirdly haughty and told me she probably knew more myths than I did, so, being polite, I didn't challenge her on it and just asked her to tell me her favourite, so that we could have a conversation about it.
She proceeded to tell me the myth of Daedalus and the minotaur. I asked her how she'd heard of that one, because it's fairly obscure. She told me she'd read it on a viral blog post on a blog about mythology.
It was my blog.
Huh, is the myth of Daedalus and the minotaur really obscure? I've seen it pop up in a bunch of places.
Co worker - “I’m pretty good at running, I run every day. I could probably beat you in a marathon.”
They didn’t know I used to be a pro runner. Ran under 14 minutes in the 5k, sub 29 in the 10k, and under 15 hours for 100 miles on trails. Won a national title even.
So I agreed to run with them and jumped in the local marathon with no training. I took the prize purse and made myself a few hundred bucks and took everyone out for beers with it. Was an interesting next Monday at work.
Astronomer here! So if we were to just meet on the street, you probably wouldn't guess I was a scientist (I am a woman who enjoys dresses when the weather is nice), and this was doubly true when I was a few years younger in my 20s and single. Especially at bars.
So at the end of college I was doing a summer internship in Mountain View, California where if you went out there'd be a lot of Google boys who would literally sometimes wear "Google" shirts so you'd know they're extra obnoxious. I remember getting stuck chatting with one, and when he asked my major he sneered with the "do you really know the subject?" attitude. And ask me if I knew how the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle was. And when I explained his 20 questions, said "it's probably not so hard because they go easy on women because they don't want to scare them off."
Then he proceeded to tell me about a lecture he attended in Mountain View that he'd been lucky enough to visit, as a Google employee, by Jill Tarter who runs the SETI Institute. And proceeded to tell me about the Allen Telescope Array they were building in northern California because I "might not know about it."
I gave him a minute for his spiel but then said I actually was working for Jill that summer at the SETI Institute, on interference mitigation for the Allen Telescope Array. And did he want to hear what she was really like, or see some pictures from the ATA site? I'd also just met Frank Drake, and he was really nice!
Oh man, was that guy not happy! But hey at least he stopped talking to me like right after.
Not me but my brother & best friend. We were in Baltimore for a baseball weekend in 2009 and hanging out at a bar across from Camden yards. They had a Silver Strike bowling video game. At our local bar back in Boston we had one as well. I’m decent at the game but my brother and buddy were F**king amazing at this game. Bowling 300 games and what not. So two dudes are playing this game and drinking. We ask them if we can play when they’re done. They ask if we want to play them. We said sure. My brother and buddy destroy these guys. Like it wasn’t even close. These dudes said it was a fluke and they wanted a rematch but this time for a round of beers. Again, annihilation city. But they kept wanting to play, to eventually win a game. No lie, after THIRTEEN ROUNDS OF BEERS they finally gave up. They were great guys. We saw them the next day at the same bar and they walked up to Us with beers in hand already and said “rematch”. To this day we still hang out with them whenever we go to Baltimore. And to this day, they have never won.
Went with a big group of college students to a bar. I was challenged by a cute little girl (and by that I mean she was maybe 95lbs, 4'11") to a drink contest with a pint of beer. I'm 6'1", 200lbs, so I just chuckled and agreed to it.
It seems like I had just enough time to tilt my head back to start chugging when I hear her empty glass hit the table. Turns out she had the ability to just open her throat and pour the beer down.
We dated for about six months after that. Seriously.
Someone at a bar bet me there were only 30 days in a particular month. $20 if I could prove them wrong right then (pre-cellphone days). I was born on the 31st of that month, showed them my drivers license
Mine’s kind of dumb, but I think it still counts. At work I’m kind of the Google Sheets “expert” and I make lots of tools for different departments to use. Enter “new guy” who needed to collect, aggregate and display a bunch of data. My boss was like, “Send Wish a calendar invite so you can tell her what you want and she’ll set it up for you.” New Guy was having none of that and insisted he was going to do it himself. Well, a week later, he finally has this s**tty sheet that doesn’t have half the information we need, and we have to have the numbers for the State by tomorrow. So my boss asks me to fix it and new guy is like, “Yeah, okay, that’s not really possible. This is is a good as it’s going to get!” Two hours later, I send them both a fully functional and automated sheet that does everything we need, and we’ll be able to use it indefinitely, which means next time (and every time) the stupid state report is due, it will already be done. New Guy was like, “I would have added that in if I’d had more time.”
A local mall had a portable climbing wall with a “make it to the top and win $100” side. The route was actually pretty challenging. As I walked by the guy asked me if I’d like to try “nobody has made it to the top, you think you can do it buddy”
At the time I was ranked top 12 climber in my age group and kind of laughed to myself.
After taking my $100 I then proceeded to call the rest of my climbing team and one by one they went to the mall and claimed their $100
After the 4th person they guy got suspicious and took the sign down. We later told him we were all Nationally ranked competition climbers and he got a good laugh. The company who owned the rentals was the one who lost the money, he just worked the booth and wasn’t the one who lost the prize money.
Basketball.
I'm a very unassuming looking guy. 5'8", 150 pounds, not a tattoo to be found. But back in the day, I was pretty athletic and could hang in games with fringe D1/semi-pro guys. But I can't emphasize how much I didn't look like it at all.
Anyway, in college, hanging out in someone's room, it came up that I play a bit and some dude I didn't know started running his mouth about how he could destroy me. Just wouldn't stop talking. I gave him every out, until it basically became personally offensive.
Other guys were a bit tired of this ***hole hanging around, and they knew I could play, so we all trooped over to the gym, late as f**k in the dead of winter, so we could settle things.
11-0 the first game. Not sure if we played after that, but I remember it was 11-0 because I made sure to not let the guy score. And I'm a pretty mellow guy and usually would have laid off and let him score a couple when it was clear that I was better, but this guy was a real ***hole, so I just clamped down on him start to finish. I blocked a ton of his s**t.
He stopped hanging around nearly as much after that, so I was kind of a hero to the rest of the guys. Like St. Patrick. Drove that snake out of our nation.
I found myself in a discussion about vaccinations with an antivaxx couple in a fkn smokers area of a bar.
I'm a scientist.
I tried every logical, emotional and personal plea but they ended up getting mad, telling me to get f**ked and walked off. My friends that heard it said I put forward a good argument and they walked away because they lost. Sucks because we all lose when they don't vaccinate their kids yeehaw
My landlord tried blaming me for damage to the kitchen cabinets but didnt know that im in construction and am very familiar with home building codes.
They placed the cabinets too close to the stove and the glue that held the laminate had melted.
I was living in a small town, driving an '84 Honda Accord I'd inherited from my brother. During a drive home from the store, the dash lights came on and the car quietly died. I knew what was wrong as the car had experienced the same problem 4 years earlier. The timing belt had slipped off the reel. I called a mechanic in town and asked them if they could come get my car and replace the timing belt and reel. He said "why would you say it was the timing belt." I explained the symptoms and how it had happened before. He proceeded to argue with me and I finally said "Just come get the car!" An hour after they got the car, I called him. "So what seems to be wrong with it?" In a meek voice he says "timing belt."
My nephew challenged me to Super Smash Bros Ultimate once. Once.
When my son got a switch his uncle came over to play SSB with all of us (since he too had a switch). No one could beat this man haha, my fiance is a gamer and couldn't. Everyone in the house tried, we would even do 3 vs 1. He would take us all out, every single time... we tried this on multiple occasions... we gave up for good playing with him 😂
Just graduated as a teacher and I’ve been working as a Casual Relief Teacher. I play lacrosse which is a small sport already and even smaller here in Australia. I tried out for the last World Cup team and made it to the final cut.
I was team teaching with another teacher who worked at the school. Before the period he spoke to me and said “hey mate, we are doing lacrosse today. It’s a bit of an odd sport and hard to teach so just wait over there and then you can just help with supervision and discipline.” then walked off.
Being a CRT from an agency, didn’t really know how to speak to him/speak up. I tried to speak to him and say that I played but he didn’t give me a second so I just listened and did my thing. Few minutes into the start of the lesson I grabbed a stick and ball and just started to work my around the class giving them pointers and hints.
The way he was teaching was completely incorrect and I didn’t want to say anything so when the kids broke off into groups, I kinda just taught them correctly.
He pulled me over at a drinks break and asked how I knew so much/good perform the skills. I told him how I play lacrosse and my playing history. He asked why I didn’t speak up and say anything and I said I tried to tell him.
Anyway, I ended up running the rest of the class and even ended up sitting down with him and going through the correct and easier way to teach the game and skills.
People say all kinds of random s**t how weather and climate functions. I’m a meteorologist in disguise—work as a data scientist but has a Master’s and a PhD in meteorology. When I politely (and gently) inform them how things actually work, people are usually super interested to know more. But occasionally I got something like “Oh yeah?! And how do you know?” Well, I have published several papers on the matter, would love to discuss it all night. So far, they’ve all backed down after that.
I’m really good at archery. My friend and I rented him a bow at the local range and he wanted to bet me beers for every round. I told him repeatedly no, you will not win. He could probably get lucky if we did one arrow shoot offs but he wanted to do proper three arrow rounds.
He insisted. I drank for free all night.
My Uncle challenged Jack Nicklaus to a golf game in college, without a clue. The humiliation burns him to this day
I’m not a great swimmer but there was a time when I would do laps for literally hours. I would go slowly to make sure that I had the energy to do the time I wanted to. This kid challenged me to race. I left him so far behind it was funny. He though he was about to humiliate me in front of his friends.
Some Japanese client that studied in France asked me for a translation job but wanted to change all my sentences to prove she was better than me at my own mother tongue. She ended up writing something grammatically correct but that sounded so horribly sexual that if you tried and googled the terms you would only find porn and erotic novels. I had to tell my boss she was forcing me to write porn (because it was for a mascara brand that was supposed to be sold in France) so he could stop her and after that she stopped trying to best me
Chess. I'm a Chess master. I think when people hear that they're like 'oh he's really good at chess', but what it means is that I've played in international tournaments and beaten other masters and some governing body has given me a title.
Anyway, I get challenged a lot by friends who think they're pretty good. What they don't realize is that your average 'pretty good' player is getting destroyed by your average tournament player. And your average tournament player is getting destroyed by a master.
My bf plays chess (1900 or so) and he's always reading, learning and watching matches to improve his play. He even tried to teach me... only when I met him I realized that knowing how to move the pieces doesn't mean you know how to play.
While not a pro, I'm pretty darn good at poker. The church I was at had a Poker night and I was just going to watch. They insisted I join the 25 cent game.
Came home with $200 and they decided to never have a poker night again.
I dated a guy in college who was incredibly book smart - working on his master's with the intention to pursue a PhD. I was doing the good ole 5 year plan for college and quite content with my level of brain power compared to his. What he underestimated was my fondness for word games, especially Scrabble. I like to think I'm quite good. Well, in the 3 years we dated, we only played Scrabble once and I beat the s**t out of him. The icing on the cake was when I got a 50+ word score for playing one letter. He literally wiped all the letters off the board and had a mini hissy fit, claiming that I cheated. I got out my trusty Scrabble dictionary and proved his loss.
I have studied memorization techniques and mnemonics. I decided to have a bit of fun with my teacher.
He wanted us to write down a list of 20 items. He was the type of guy to quickly call you out for not paying attention in class. I sat there memorizing the list in my head (knowing full well he would see me not writing anything down). He chewed me out for not taking notes - as predicted. He took the bait. I said I "have it all in my head". I KNEW he would call me out the next day and have me recite the list.
The next day he turns to me in the middle of his lecture and has the biggest smug smile. "So RollerDerby88, what were those items from yesterday?" I immediately proceeded to list them in order without hesitation. Then listed them backwards. His smile grew bigger and bigger and the rest of the class was cracking up!
Had a teacher try this on me once too. Little did he know that I studied the same course before. Everyone in the classroom started applauding... he wasn't.
I would never go as far to say that I'm a fencing expert, but I have been fencing casually for about 5 years total, and consider myself pretty good for someone who's casual. A new person came to our fencing practice and demanded of a few men that we do a king of the hill style match up. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I could smell the toxic behavior rolling off of him when everyone declined but he continued to insist we do it. He somehow fixated on me, and I decided I'd give it a go on a normal 15 point bout. Initially I always fence one style, in order to test out my opponent before switching to a style to trump theirs. So the first few points I see him cheering himself on as he established a 1-2 point lead. By 4-2 in his favor, I already figured out all the flaws in his fencing style, and proceeded to get the next 10 points without losing one round. I could see the guy fuming at the end when I beat him 15-5. It was a good feeling.
Not a physical challenge but I sell building materials for a living (think Home Depot but for guys that build skyscrapers and stadiums). There has been many occasions where an old man with zero construction knowledge tries to lecture me on what I do for a living.
Everyone thinks they are amazing at Mario Kart. They used to be good as a kid and think they still are.
I played 2-4 hours everyday in undergrad (a couple years ago). I raced in local and school tournaments and won most of the time. I was within seconds on several course records. I have every course memorized and know exactly when to brake on every turn.
I don’t play much anymore, but anytime somebody sees my Mario Kart painting (I won it at a local tournament), they tell me how amazing they are. I’m happy to absolutely destroy them. It’s an otherwise useless skill.
reminds of when i had to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time(month and a half) and we would play mario kart all day every day and i went from a total noob to someone who could play decently, not as dramatic improvement but it was fun.
For reference, this is clay pigeon shooting, kinda known as trap in the south. Well, I'm from a rural area and not exactly super "southern" so when I'd go to other trap fields to practice different conditions there's always be a smartass or two try and place a bet with me. This is definetly an old money sport with some of the guns going upwards of 5,000 dollars. I had an old bt-100 that we got in a trade for lead shot and some cash on the side, while not cheap, it was still much "lower" than other peoples guns and people would take that as me being a newbie. They'd learn pretty quick though, since the team I was one went to the Nationals almost every year from 11 to 18. It was always funny because some would be good sports but others would throw an absolute fit. I saw a guy damage a 10,000 Perazzi because someone else beat him before. Even funnier part is there was a guy from the county next to us who could blow us out of the water and he always shot with an 870 pump from Walmart.
I’m a mechanic, this happens on a daily basis. one of my favorites from messing with a buddy. I was helping him fix his truck in my garage for free. By helping, I mean I was fixing his truck for free.
Me: your MAP sensor is bad
Them: pretty sure it’s the plugs or wires.
Me: no, your spark is fine, fuel pressure is fine, Air is fine. Your fuel regulation is the issue, which is why there is fuel in your oil.
Them: you sure it’s not the spark plugs, how do you actually know?
Me: hands them a spark plug still hooked up to the coil wire and presses the remote start button
Then: WHAT THE F**KING HELL MAN!
Me: spark is fine isn’t it?
Them: how much is a MAP sensor?
This is funny! For anyone who hasn't figured it out, the mechanic activated the spark plugs while the friend was holding them, which shocked his hand.
I was visiting Kyoto a couple years ago (I’m an American) and my wife and I walked into a tiny bar which had 5 people in suits laughing and talking in Japanese. We instantly knew that this was not a tourist bar and felt pretty out of place. The bartender spoke the most English so I asked him what his favorite Shochu was, and things got a little more comfortable as we drank and the whole bar tried to talk to us.
Someone mentioned Mario Kart and I said “yeah yeah” - so the bartender points to an old super famicom in the corner and apparently I have accepted the challenge.
I smiled to myself and my wife thinks it’s funny because I used to have some skill at this game. Bartender selects battle mode and... the guy is f**king phenomenal. I haven’t played in a few years and he buries me in less than a minute. The whole bar is laughing and I’m a little stunned. We’re on to the 2nd of 3 rounds.
I destroy him. 3 balloons to 0. Everyone cheers except the bartender. 2 shots were put in front of me and I throw one down.
Round 3. We’re down to one balloon each and I swear it’s the longest battle round of all time. I’m sweating. Shell, dodge, shell, dodge. I have him in my sights and I fire.
I miss - the shell bounces off the wall and I self-KO. The crowd goes wild.
So that’s the story of how a self-proclaimed Mario Kart expert embarrassed himself and his country in a small bar in Kyoto. We drank a lot and made a lot of great friends that night that we’ll never see again.
this is single-handedly the most intense war story I will ever hear. Such emotion.
While I'd never claim I was an expert, I used to be pretty damn good at pool. My aunt and uncle had a pool table downstairs and my parents fir a variety of reasons would go over regularly and spend all day there. There was nothing else for us (me and my brother) to do so we just played pool all day for years, eventually we got bored and saw that he had a book on trick shots so we started doing that for fun. Never really mastered them, but they made for really good practice in understanding how to get the ball to do what you want.
So anyway, for my buddies 20th birthday he wanted to go to a pool hall and invited a ton of people. Then he told he it was going to be a tournament, drinks for individual games, and a 50/50 type of deal for the winner (he gets half regardless because it was his birthday), insisted I come and I caved eventually.
Get there, first game, they break, and that was the only shot they got. Rest of mine were pretty similar. At the end I just looked at him, "told you not to invite me..."
Found out after that a bunch of them had never even played pool before, felt pretty bad so I took the money and bought everyone drinks with it.
I had my ex-fiancee's little brother challenge me to a game that he was "...The master of." The game was Halo: Combat Evolved.
"I play this all the time, so I'm gonna kick your ass." He squeaked. "Choose any map you want." I replied. He chose 'Hang 'Em High'.
After loading in, I stood there for about a minute or so. He chuckled as I 'fumbled' with the controller. "Its been a while since I've played this..." I say. Unbeknownst to him, I had played that game every day since I got it when it released. And by every day, I mean every day. I played Halo into the ground, every difficulty and by the end I was just goofing off on Legendary with self-imposed challenge runs like "Only Covenant Weapons" or "Pistols only". It was fun.
He beelines for the rocket launcher and the sniper rifle. I take the pistol... And then proceed to open a can of whoop ass on this 13 year old that I still like to reminisce about to this very day. Sniping an angry squeaker half-way across the map using only a pistol, you can imagine the enjoyment.
We only played the one time.
Too bad the child was so rude. He could have learned something and had fun.
My brother had claimed that wind parks in Germany were massively unpopular with German citizens and barely producing any energy compared to the German coal industry. I had just finished my thesis on that very topic.
According to Wikipedia, "In 2019, a quarter of the country's total electricity was generated using wind power". I hope it continues to go up since Germany still has a way to go but all 84 coal plants in the country will supposedly be closed by 2038.
This guy trying to be a major alpha at any interaction with another male challenged me to a distance race, saying they could run longer than I could. I knew they weren't a runner at all but they did not know I run ultramarathons and had recently set the course record in a 50 mile race. Well I said sure and we set out the next morning at 6am around a track with 3 of our mutual friends watching. I just trailed behind him by like 20 feet at a casual pace. That way he'd always be expending energy trying to put distance in between us. Surprisingly he kept that up for like 4 miles (which is a lot for a non runner). I eventually ran up to him and stuck with him for another mile talking about my running accomplishments and how this was a stupid thing to try and be better at.
Eventually our friends wanted to leave and said it was the last mile so I was like "if you want we can run in together." He agreed. But then the very last lap started he said "sorry but I'm gonna win" and tried to speed up to pass me. I was like "okay you stupid b****" and dropped my pace to like a 4 minute mile and came in like 150 meters ahead of him.
He was full of excuses and challenged me to a sprint a few days later. I also completely rekt him at that. Just give it up dude you don't have to be "alpha" all the f**kin time
My dad was into video games before they were really a thing.
He had a Magnavox Odessey, intellivision, etc...
In the 80s you could rent Nintendo's and games from video stores. He would do this when he visited and I would almost always smoke him at whatever game.
I didn't see him that much, but he was visiting and decided to rent one and the game Double Dribble (old NES basketball game). It was pretty new at the time and he knew I didn't really like basketball.
He played it all day while I was in school and when I got home he challenged me to a game.
The look on his face when his 10 year old son beat him by 20 points or so was priceless.
My friends and I basically rented every game when it came out and I had played this one a lot.
I mean, it's sports but it is still a video game. I was good at games.
Karma time is now my teenagers can regularly beat me at just about anything.
We had a golf work outing and he challenged me at golf. Now I've played golf my whole life, I also played in highschool and have played at public courses every year since. He did not know this.
The first hole, he gets to witness a 200 yard drive down the middle, he tries to play it off like I got lucky but no, every hole after that was the same. He drank alot after the first couple holes.
He, to this day, refuses to say I won because we didn't keep a scorecard..
This kinda qualifies. Not me but my brother:
He works for a scientific instrument company as a technical expert in gas chromatography. He and his colleagues went to a trade show to show off their new instrument.
A couple of German scientists come up, ask a bunch of questions, breaking the conversation intermittently to speak to each other in German. Little do they know, my brother is fluent in German. He lets them talk amongst themselves until one of the Germans says (in German) “I bet this one is just as s**t as the last one.”
To which, my brother replies, in German, how it is not in fact s**t because they’ve done a tremendous number of improvements.
The two Germans, now stunned that they’ve been caught, politely thank my brother and apologize and walk away.
The ultimate, “No, f**k YOU” way to have handled that in my opinion.
Camped out for tickets to The Phantom Menace. Guy in a group behind me challenged everyone to Star Wars Trivial Pursuit for money. It got to my first turn and I ran the board and won without anyone else getting to go. I felt bad so I didn't even take his money. He still accused me of having memorized the cards to cheat. Nope, just seen the original trilogy dozens of times all my life
Ping pong.
I was hanging out with a girl I was seeing at the time and they had a ping pong table near the bar. Two guys were playing and making a big show about how good they thought they were- grunting, rolled sleeves, the works. When I handed them back a wayward shot, I made a comment about how it looked fun to play. They said that I could get the next game after a guy that was waiting, but their “rule” was anyone that they added in the queue to play and lost had to buy drinks for everyone else. About 6 people total were playing.
I played competitive ping pong in a league back in med school, and even placed highly in some New York City championships. I still play every so often in my current city, and have won a few tournaments here as well.
Played possum in the beginning, went down 4-1. Won 21 to like 7 or 8. Didn’t have to pay for a drink or give up my spot until my date was ready to go. No one even made it out of the single digits.
I'm no professional sprinter, but I'm pretty fast. Fast enough to never have lost a sprinting challenge. One day a new guy at my old job (now a good friend of mine) told me he could run faster than I can so I gladly accepted the challenge (the length was about 60m). I let him start half a second before me and then proceeded to overrun him around 10 meters before the finish line. He was so surprised he tripped and ate the asphalt. We had a good laugh despite his minor injuries
A tinder date bet me dinner that I couldn't beat her in smash. I've been playing competitively for around 6 years, so she ended up paying for dinner.
Kind of similar: I told a guy at work that I could play guitar. He didn’t believe me and challenged me to learn and play Minor Swing in 2 weeks. Nailed it in the time frame, performed it at work. I had only accepted to perform it to him (I’m a bit shy and don’t like performing!) but there were no meeting rooms free. Had to perform in front of the whole office. Not my idea of fun. It went well and he/they now believe I can play a bit.
It wasn't even a week since I had an argument with someone on facebook under a covid-19 article. In the end (after I linked her several research) she claimed she is right, because she graduated as a medical doctor. On facebook. Where I saw her profile saying she is confectioner. She sure hadn't checked mine which says I have a master degree from biotechnology...
It’s especially annoying when it’s the attitude of men treating women like that. Some guys just don’t see women as human beings for some reason and don’t think we can be as good in the STEM world, again for some strange reason.
I have a friend that is a retired Admiral, he took warships around the world etc. But for civilian boats, the navy qualifications do not apply, so if you want a have a small skiboat etc, you need to get a new licence. He ended up sitting thru all the classes about radio procedures, weather, etc etc without any one of the lecturers knowing about his previous naval qualifications. And the civilian exams are not as strict as the naval exams.
This one sounds like me, an Istrian, taking beginner level Italian classes in my graduate year in university in Korea. Italian is literally my native language (besides Croatian). But, what could I do... Had to satisfy the curriculum of obligatory subjects, so....
Load More Replies... Not a challenge, but a funny story. When I was 19, I was with my cousin (16y) at a bar. He asked me what I wanted to drink, I said I wanted a beer (you must be over 16 in Belgium to drink alcohol). He went to the counter to ask for two beers. I just took a sip and suddenly the bartender came up to me and grabbed my glass. He yelled that I was underage and not allowed to drink alcohol (I look very very young) and my cousin answered "no she's 19!". He didn't believe it, so I said "You wanna bet for 100 Belgian Franks?" (100 Franks back then is the equivalent of about 20 Euro these days). He agreed and I showed him my ID. He turned pale and excused himself, went behind the bar and came back with 100 franks AND another beer.
my nephew told me he learned just learned to play chess and I asked if I could play with him thinking I could beat this 6yo even though I'm not that good with it, but I thought I played a lot more than he has so what can this kid do to me. he beat me effortlessly. my brother (kid's father) told me when he said "just learned to play" meant he had spent the entire few months prior playing nothing but chess, obsessively.
I had a guy at my gym try to tell me my tattoo is Japanese, and he would know because he studied Japanese. My tattoo is in fact, Chinese. I would know because I studied Chinese and Japanese and had a friend who is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher write the quote I wanted so the tattoo artist could trace it.
That almost top my experience of a native European telling me how living in Malaysia is like. I was born and bred there.
Load More Replies...
These are satisfying ... because the pwn'd people at least have the minimal awareness to sulk/storm off/laugh due to being caught out - meaning they are admitting they were wrong. What happens to many of us - is that you get condescended to, you show all the degrees, the research papers, even evidence from other experts (you know... in case the person just refuses to submit to *you* in particular 'cuz it's you)... and they STILL insist that you're an idiot or "buying into some hollywood bs" or "You just guess lucky".
I am an engineer for a company that sells airborne cameras. There is a forum dedicated to debunking UFO and other similar claims that I usually just lurk on. But when so called experts come out and claim something is unidentifiable, when it was recorded on a camera system that I personally tested, and they are misinterpreting what the overlay readings mean, I cant help but chime in and shut them down. How they are the 'go-to' for visual phenomena is beyond me - wouldnt you ask the people that sell the systems first to explain any unusual lighting effects?
For me, it depends on what's at stake. A neighbour gave me career advice when I was job hunting. It was way off the mark, but she meant well, so I thanked her. In another situation, my then boss was giving the wrong information to a client, so I contradicted him. He told me afterwards never to contradict him in front of a client. I can understand how he felt, but he could have either consulted me beforehand or asked me to explain things to the client.
Load More Replies...
I retired after 40+ years in the plumbing and HVAC field. I went to a local hardware store to rent a sink cleaning machine. The kid behind the counter started a how to lecture. Which was okay but he was so condescending and arrogant. When he finally shut up and asked for my I.D. I showed him my drivers license and Master Plumbers license. I told him I've had this since before you were born. It was worth it just to see his face and listen to him stammer.
Years ago a friend and I were at a rugby game, we were long time fans of the Crusaders from NZ. That night we were playing the side from NSW. NSW had been talking themselves up a lot and the Australian couples behind us were giving us some good natured static about giving the Crusaders a hiding. At that point the Crusaders had 14 starting All Blacks in the team. By half time we were 68 nil in front. It was the best night ever.
I was 13 and a smaller kid, played a lot of baseball and always had a pretty good arm. In the mid late 90's, my friends and I were roaming around the local fair and we came up to the throwing pit that has a radar and clocks how hard you throw. I knew I threw harder than normal kids, but no idea how fast. So there is a drunk guy there throwing, and he hits 59 as I walk by. I snicker, which totally pisses this guy off. He yells and proceeds to tell me I cant throw that hard. Then he bets me $10 he can throw harder than me. I counter to make it $20 (parents have given me 20 to have fun for the night) and ill give him a 10 mph cushion. He accepts, makes his 3 throws maxing out at 63. I throw my first, nothing registers. Second throw, nothing again. Carnie proceeds to walk over and tells me the radar gun is set to not clock over 80 and i should take a little off. At this point, drunk guy is riding his high. I take some off, clock 78, this guys drops his mouth, pays up, walks away.
I've written books, etc., on film and pop culture, including fandoms with lots of haters, like Star Wars and Twilight. I have the age, experience, and academic credentials to back it up. Then, you know, I went on the Internet. Well. I try to comment simply, and in encouraging ways, to people voicing their sincere thoughts. All good. But, occasionally, when I see a person attacking another person for the fandoms they love... I am happy to offer my support to the lovers -- and not the haters. Please love what you love for the reasons you love it. And please allow others the same respect. MTFBWY.
One day I made a time machine phone and I call up Einstein for a physics battle. I totally pwned him when I told him about relativity, then he stole the credit for it. It's true, because I posted it on the internet!
Not really in the same vein but i did enjoy one moment. First i have to state that i really don't like the fact that my grandson plays way too much on video games. I mean hours. Alittle would be fine but i am talking over kill. Well, my washing machine broke and u had to take my clothes to the laundromat. There was a stand alone game console that had several old school games on it. Knowing i don't like gaming but wanting to k kill the time my grandson challenged me to a game of my choice. I selected galaga. I played for so long on my first "ship"he got bored watching, eventually getting the high score for the machine. Little did he know that during college i worked both as bartender and waitress in a bar on the docks where business would be on and off depending on the ships coming into port. During the slow times i played that damn machine for distraction. By the way, did the same thing to my son when he was in his twenties with pool... they had a pool table in the bar, too.
I once got into an online argument with a man from the UK . He said he had been to the Netherlands twice. He was a real expert he said. He spoke about the marihuana/drug laws in the Netherlands. What he said was completely false. He also said in winters we ice skate a lot.( we havent had thick enough ice to skate in ages) He went on saying that its best to cycle everywhere in Amsterdam( Not a good idea with all the traffic,unless you know what youre doing.Many of us from outside Amsterdam wouldnt ever even think about cycling in Amsterdam). You get around faster. I asked him if he was an experienced cyclist. He said he wasnt,so i said '' you must have a deathwish then.'' He got very annoyed with me. He said '' wth do you know woman! Have you ever been to the Netherlands?'' I said '' well you could say i'm an expert, since i was born there 43 years ago. And i still live there...sooo'''. The man then logged off..
My son and his friends were playing Mortal Kombat X and asked if I wanted to join in. They’re 15; I’m 35. I win a few games in a row handily and left for work. Fast forward a couple of years and they are 17 and I’m 37. Now it’s Mortal Kombat 11 and I’m in the mood to play so I proceed to demolish these teenagers. I don’t even let up, kind of being a jerk about it, but it’s a good lesson in humility. My son was the best of his friends group and I handily beat him every time. He angrily asked how I was so good at this since I never play games and never played this one before then. I politely informed him I’ve been playing Mortal Kombat since middle school, long before he was born. Even if I haven’t played in a good 10 years I’m still a Mortal Kombat OG.
What really strikes me in all these stories is how many people seem to go around thinking they are "the best" at anything, and absolutely wanting to beat someone into the ground just to look good before their friends, or because it's a woman knowing her subject, etc. This arrogance is really unsufferable.
Worked at Sprint as an asst mngr for 7 yrs on the Big Island of Hawaii. Had a very rude Russian female ridicule me in Russian to her friend while speaking to me in English about how I needed to "FIX IT for her". The fix required her to call in and extend her bill payment due date. Explained the fix requires her to call in to care. She speaking in Russian to her friend about how idiotic, ugly and rude I was. The friend then asks her while I call into Care for her, "do you think she can understand us?" To which she replies, "I DON'T CARE". I fix her payment arrangement, write the confirmation on her bill. Then I write "Me too, and yes I can understand you. Have a nice day." in Russian scripting. Both her and her friend went pale and left. Little did they know a learned a bit of Russian in high school to speak to a Russian foreign exchange student who I was friends with.
Gotta wonder how many of these posts were from Legends in their Own Minds, who are making up stories to justify their delusions?
I was going to write something deeply cynical and sarcastic, but who am I kidding? You're the Master. I'm crushed :{
Load More Replies...
I don't have much formal education but have a high IQ and was invited to join MENSA the 1st time at 14 after taking their test. I love science and have always read a lot and watched a lot of documentaries, but left school at 15 b/c I was bored and going through some stuff. My fiance was taking A&P and struggling and I was helping by quizzing him from his index cards and notes, etc. He was getting frustrated and made a remark about how hard it was and that I didn't understand b/c I never had to take it. So I took one of his quizzes with no study or reading(other than those index cards.) I scored higher than he did. He was so shocked and apologetic. No idea how I knew all that but it was all stuck in my head somehow.
It wasn't even a week since I had an argument with someone on facebook under a covid-19 article. In the end (after I linked her several research) she claimed she is right, because she graduated as a medical doctor. On facebook. Where I saw her profile saying she is confectioner. She sure hadn't checked mine which says I have a master degree from biotechnology...
It’s especially annoying when it’s the attitude of men treating women like that. Some guys just don’t see women as human beings for some reason and don’t think we can be as good in the STEM world, again for some strange reason.
I have a friend that is a retired Admiral, he took warships around the world etc. But for civilian boats, the navy qualifications do not apply, so if you want a have a small skiboat etc, you need to get a new licence. He ended up sitting thru all the classes about radio procedures, weather, etc etc without any one of the lecturers knowing about his previous naval qualifications. And the civilian exams are not as strict as the naval exams.
This one sounds like me, an Istrian, taking beginner level Italian classes in my graduate year in university in Korea. Italian is literally my native language (besides Croatian). But, what could I do... Had to satisfy the curriculum of obligatory subjects, so....
Load More Replies... Not a challenge, but a funny story. When I was 19, I was with my cousin (16y) at a bar. He asked me what I wanted to drink, I said I wanted a beer (you must be over 16 in Belgium to drink alcohol). He went to the counter to ask for two beers. I just took a sip and suddenly the bartender came up to me and grabbed my glass. He yelled that I was underage and not allowed to drink alcohol (I look very very young) and my cousin answered "no she's 19!". He didn't believe it, so I said "You wanna bet for 100 Belgian Franks?" (100 Franks back then is the equivalent of about 20 Euro these days). He agreed and I showed him my ID. He turned pale and excused himself, went behind the bar and came back with 100 franks AND another beer.
my nephew told me he learned just learned to play chess and I asked if I could play with him thinking I could beat this 6yo even though I'm not that good with it, but I thought I played a lot more than he has so what can this kid do to me. he beat me effortlessly. my brother (kid's father) told me when he said "just learned to play" meant he had spent the entire few months prior playing nothing but chess, obsessively.
I had a guy at my gym try to tell me my tattoo is Japanese, and he would know because he studied Japanese. My tattoo is in fact, Chinese. I would know because I studied Chinese and Japanese and had a friend who is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher write the quote I wanted so the tattoo artist could trace it.
That almost top my experience of a native European telling me how living in Malaysia is like. I was born and bred there.
Load More Replies... These are satisfying ... because the pwn'd people at least have the minimal awareness to sulk/storm off/laugh due to being caught out - meaning they are admitting they were wrong. What happens to many of us - is that you get condescended to, you show all the degrees, the research papers, even evidence from other experts (you know... in case the person just refuses to submit to *you* in particular 'cuz it's you)... and they STILL insist that you're an idiot or "buying into some hollywood bs" or "You just guess lucky".
I am an engineer for a company that sells airborne cameras. There is a forum dedicated to debunking UFO and other similar claims that I usually just lurk on. But when so called experts come out and claim something is unidentifiable, when it was recorded on a camera system that I personally tested, and they are misinterpreting what the overlay readings mean, I cant help but chime in and shut them down. How they are the 'go-to' for visual phenomena is beyond me - wouldnt you ask the people that sell the systems first to explain any unusual lighting effects?
For me, it depends on what's at stake. A neighbour gave me career advice when I was job hunting. It was way off the mark, but she meant well, so I thanked her. In another situation, my then boss was giving the wrong information to a client, so I contradicted him. He told me afterwards never to contradict him in front of a client. I can understand how he felt, but he could have either consulted me beforehand or asked me to explain things to the client.
Load More Replies... I retired after 40+ years in the plumbing and HVAC field. I went to a local hardware store to rent a sink cleaning machine. The kid behind the counter started a how to lecture. Which was okay but he was so condescending and arrogant. When he finally shut up and asked for my I.D. I showed him my drivers license and Master Plumbers license. I told him I've had this since before you were born. It was worth it just to see his face and listen to him stammer.
Years ago a friend and I were at a rugby game, we were long time fans of the Crusaders from NZ. That night we were playing the side from NSW. NSW had been talking themselves up a lot and the Australian couples behind us were giving us some good natured static about giving the Crusaders a hiding. At that point the Crusaders had 14 starting All Blacks in the team. By half time we were 68 nil in front. It was the best night ever.
I was 13 and a smaller kid, played a lot of baseball and always had a pretty good arm. In the mid late 90's, my friends and I were roaming around the local fair and we came up to the throwing pit that has a radar and clocks how hard you throw. I knew I threw harder than normal kids, but no idea how fast. So there is a drunk guy there throwing, and he hits 59 as I walk by. I snicker, which totally pisses this guy off. He yells and proceeds to tell me I cant throw that hard. Then he bets me $10 he can throw harder than me. I counter to make it $20 (parents have given me 20 to have fun for the night) and ill give him a 10 mph cushion. He accepts, makes his 3 throws maxing out at 63. I throw my first, nothing registers. Second throw, nothing again. Carnie proceeds to walk over and tells me the radar gun is set to not clock over 80 and i should take a little off. At this point, drunk guy is riding his high. I take some off, clock 78, this guys drops his mouth, pays up, walks away.
I've written books, etc., on film and pop culture, including fandoms with lots of haters, like Star Wars and Twilight. I have the age, experience, and academic credentials to back it up. Then, you know, I went on the Internet. Well. I try to comment simply, and in encouraging ways, to people voicing their sincere thoughts. All good. But, occasionally, when I see a person attacking another person for the fandoms they love... I am happy to offer my support to the lovers -- and not the haters. Please love what you love for the reasons you love it. And please allow others the same respect. MTFBWY.
One day I made a time machine phone and I call up Einstein for a physics battle. I totally pwned him when I told him about relativity, then he stole the credit for it. It's true, because I posted it on the internet!
Not really in the same vein but i did enjoy one moment. First i have to state that i really don't like the fact that my grandson plays way too much on video games. I mean hours. Alittle would be fine but i am talking over kill. Well, my washing machine broke and u had to take my clothes to the laundromat. There was a stand alone game console that had several old school games on it. Knowing i don't like gaming but wanting to k kill the time my grandson challenged me to a game of my choice. I selected galaga. I played for so long on my first "ship"he got bored watching, eventually getting the high score for the machine. Little did he know that during college i worked both as bartender and waitress in a bar on the docks where business would be on and off depending on the ships coming into port. During the slow times i played that damn machine for distraction. By the way, did the same thing to my son when he was in his twenties with pool... they had a pool table in the bar, too.
I once got into an online argument with a man from the UK . He said he had been to the Netherlands twice. He was a real expert he said. He spoke about the marihuana/drug laws in the Netherlands. What he said was completely false. He also said in winters we ice skate a lot.( we havent had thick enough ice to skate in ages) He went on saying that its best to cycle everywhere in Amsterdam( Not a good idea with all the traffic,unless you know what youre doing.Many of us from outside Amsterdam wouldnt ever even think about cycling in Amsterdam). You get around faster. I asked him if he was an experienced cyclist. He said he wasnt,so i said '' you must have a deathwish then.'' He got very annoyed with me. He said '' wth do you know woman! Have you ever been to the Netherlands?'' I said '' well you could say i'm an expert, since i was born there 43 years ago. And i still live there...sooo'''. The man then logged off..
My son and his friends were playing Mortal Kombat X and asked if I wanted to join in. They’re 15; I’m 35. I win a few games in a row handily and left for work. Fast forward a couple of years and they are 17 and I’m 37. Now it’s Mortal Kombat 11 and I’m in the mood to play so I proceed to demolish these teenagers. I don’t even let up, kind of being a jerk about it, but it’s a good lesson in humility. My son was the best of his friends group and I handily beat him every time. He angrily asked how I was so good at this since I never play games and never played this one before then. I politely informed him I’ve been playing Mortal Kombat since middle school, long before he was born. Even if I haven’t played in a good 10 years I’m still a Mortal Kombat OG.
What really strikes me in all these stories is how many people seem to go around thinking they are "the best" at anything, and absolutely wanting to beat someone into the ground just to look good before their friends, or because it's a woman knowing her subject, etc. This arrogance is really unsufferable.
Worked at Sprint as an asst mngr for 7 yrs on the Big Island of Hawaii. Had a very rude Russian female ridicule me in Russian to her friend while speaking to me in English about how I needed to "FIX IT for her". The fix required her to call in and extend her bill payment due date. Explained the fix requires her to call in to care. She speaking in Russian to her friend about how idiotic, ugly and rude I was. The friend then asks her while I call into Care for her, "do you think she can understand us?" To which she replies, "I DON'T CARE". I fix her payment arrangement, write the confirmation on her bill. Then I write "Me too, and yes I can understand you. Have a nice day." in Russian scripting. Both her and her friend went pale and left. Little did they know a learned a bit of Russian in high school to speak to a Russian foreign exchange student who I was friends with.
Gotta wonder how many of these posts were from Legends in their Own Minds, who are making up stories to justify their delusions?
I was going to write something deeply cynical and sarcastic, but who am I kidding? You're the Master. I'm crushed :{
Load More Replies... I don't have much formal education but have a high IQ and was invited to join MENSA the 1st time at 14 after taking their test. I love science and have always read a lot and watched a lot of documentaries, but left school at 15 b/c I was bored and going through some stuff. My fiance was taking A&P and struggling and I was helping by quizzing him from his index cards and notes, etc. He was getting frustrated and made a remark about how hard it was and that I didn't understand b/c I never had to take it. So I took one of his quizzes with no study or reading(other than those index cards.) I scored higher than he did. He was so shocked and apologetic. No idea how I knew all that but it was all stuck in my head somehow.
