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79 Random Bits Of Insider Knowledge From Different Industries To Change How You See The World
A teacher can’t know the day-to-day of a 9-1-1 dispatcher, just like a member of a book club can’t know the daily routine of the author whose book they’re reading. Every profession, hobby, and community has its own secrets, and, without belonging to that club, you might never know its juiciest and most useful secrets.
Luckily, some folks online are more than willing to share the insider knowledge from their communities. In a recent post on Threads, user @AdamKann asked, “I need somebody from every community on Threads to tell me their most ridiculous piece of insider knowledge.” People from all walks of life answered his call: medical technicians, contractors, retail workers, surgeons, and librarians alike shared the random facts from their fields that everyone else should know too.
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#2
Early childhood educators know everything about you and all your family members. EVERYTHING!
#3
Weddings and all the trash that you and your attendants buy to have one are ridiculous wastes of money, and overload our landfills. That includes the engagement party, the bridal shower, the batchelorette party, the batchelor party, the rehearsal dinner and your honeymoon. Let’s normalize not cosplaying as an insufferable attention seeking princess for a day and if you must have a wedding, make it a true intimate celebration of love for you AND your groom.
#4
Contractor here. If you’re hiring a contractor for your home, offer to pay for materials yourself via phone. Otherwise you’ll be paying double or triple what they do when they up-charge you for it.
#5
Supermarkets thrown away an insane amount of food every single day. When I worked at Tesco they incinerated dozens of king size goose feather quilts because they didn’t have the tag sewn in the seam. Refused flatly to donate them!
Kabuki Kitsune 41 minutes ago
For those curious, it's a liability thing. Basically, in the event they donate food that is past date, or contaminated (yes, that does happen) and someone gets ill, or worse from it... then they can be held responsible. Tesco incinerating those quilts, that's a different issue, though in a similar vein. With non food items, companies enter into contracts that dictate that if a product can't sell, then they're to destroy the overstock, removing the tags to be sent to the company that produced it as proof of the destruction. If they remove the tags, and then donate the items... it's actually a form of fraud, and best case, could result in that company no longer supplying that product... and worst case, could result in criminal charges.
#7
Dialectical behavior therapy is basically a life hack and should be taught in schools. It teaches you how to understand, regulate, and respond to emotions instead of being controlled by and acting on them.
If you have anxiety or experience intense emotional distress, your nervous system can sometimes act like malfunctioning hardware. You CAN perform a forced reset on your body and go from a full-blown panic attack to being able to think and function again within minutes.
#8
Sometimes librarians really are the weird ultra-right who, when given an inch, will go so far as to post anti-trans signs on public bathrooms, or scriptures where it is clearly a secular space. Some even agree with book bans. They should quit.
#9
Recruiter. LinkedIn actively works against you. Recruiters can only see people who are 4th degree connections or closer. Same goes for sales reps on Sales Nav. Which is the real reason you’re supposed to get a lot of LinkedIn connections, if you plan to use it to get paid. Premium doesn’t improve your visibility to recruiters. It punishes people for not having lots of connections. LinkedIn lies so much in their ads/info on subscriptions. Not even normal embellishing, just straight up lies.
#10
Your pet does not want to experience motherhood. Your pet’s heat cycle is a miserable experience for them. Just get them spayed.
#11
If you’re buying a car at a dealership, go on the last day of the month. They are desperate to make a sale that day because the manufacturer is pushing them to hit a specific number. If the last day of the month is a weekend go on the soonest weekday after the last day of the month.
#12
If you are in a book club, message the author of your selection and ask if they will Zoom in to the discussion (or join in person, if local). Many, many, many authors would be honored to do so!
#13
Corporate: Once you hit the managerial level your real job becomes maintaining and managing relationships. Visibility and likability will mater way more than competency and effectiveness.
Grape Walls of Ire 1 hour ago
Ain't that the truth. It's so bad in my organization that the PowerPoint people outnumber the actual workers by a significant margin.
#15
Paramedic. If you use an ambulance for the sole reason that you think you'll skip the line and get seen immediately, no matter how minor your problem, guess again. We'll take you straight to the waiting room if that's the appropriate place for you.
#16
You probably suspected but I can confirm, you are still being recorded while on hold. But puh-lease don't change your ways, because those are absolutely the funniest part of my day.
#17
Cosmetic science: The more precise and scientific a skincare brand's marketing sounds, the more likely it is that they're breaking the law. Dermatologists are probably the leading source of beauty misinformation - not because they know less than everyone else, but because they're more prone to speaking confidentally outside of their lane and everyone believes them (including their colleagues, you won't believe how much not-quite-dermatology [nonsense] is in their textbooks and journals).
#18
In dog rescue we ALL know who the best overlooked dogs are. Just ask for personal favourites of the staff and you’ll get an amazing dog (not that they all aren’t amazing but we know the really good ones are that get ignored because they are too busy being good lol).
#19
Labor exploitation in Myanmar is why a lot of wedding dresses are covered in intricate beadwork.
#20
Furniture manufacturer here. Many interior design trends originate on the supply-side rather than demand-side. They’re popular because it is easier, cheaper, or faster for the companies that make the goods, not because people were asking for them. (Think: neutral colors on everything, modular sofas, open concept homes).
#21
I'm a retired Medical Lab Tech II from the Infusion Center at one of the largest hospitals in the country, and I learned that the human body's immune system constantly fights cancerous cells every second of every day without you even knowing. It's as common as breathing.
ScntstDave 40 minutes ago
Good thing the homo ignoramus is retired. He doesn't even understand BASIC body functions.
#22
A fancy grocery store that sells prepared foods like in-house sliced veg and fruit or has a deli counter with all manner of salads, cooked meats, and roasted veggies uses the profit from those few departments to pay for the entire store’s payroll of hundreds of employees.
The profit from sliced watermelon alone in a high volume environment can pay for the labor of up to 50 people in the summer months. I did the math.
#24
Pharma industry. There is no company with the resources and coordination to create magical medicines that only partially cure diseases but keep people just sick enough to stay customers. The amount of skill, precision, resources, and discretion that would take is ridiculously unlikely. They are trying to make all the money they can, but by treating and curing the disease and holding onto the patent—not keeping people sick. They don’t need to—there are always more sick people.
#25
Many celebrities straight up lie in interviews. About all kinds of things: Who they’re friends with, what they believe. Full on performance. Never compare your behind-the-scenes life to the highlight reel of a celebrity. It is all illusion. It’s a business. They entertain to pay their bills.
Bored Jellyfish 1 hour ago
This is why I like Hot Ones interviews. Not only do they dig deep in researching their guests to come up with unique questions, but the heat from the hot sauce makes them struggle with maintaining their “celebrity facade”. A few who do manage to keep performing through it, become a little more obvious.
#26
Workplace bullying does not fall within a “protected category” like “race, disability, etc. therefore your complaint is less likely to be taken seriously & you’re more likely to be terminated from your job because you reported it.
Grape Walls of Ire 54 minutes ago
Also the truth. For 2 years now, the head my department has been trying to get rid of one of my coworkers because he reported bullying to HR. That manager is a pathetic excuse for a human being.
#27
We hate serving your children [bad] food just as much as you hate them eating it. But we have regulations the government sets that we have to follow and not enough funding to serve the best food in a lot of districts across America.
#28
Many designer items are made in the same factories as those that are much less. Sometimes they change the fabric/material. Sometimes they don't.
#29
Flavored Coffee isn’t flavored, it’s scented oil. The nose ‘tastes the flavor’.
#30
Welder Here.
I’ve seen some welds on big construction (equipment) that even I wonder how it holds it together.
#31
When a big brewery switches a filling line from a tank of, let's say, Bud Light to a tank of, let's say, Busch Light, there’s a section in the line where the two beers mix.
And because disposing of beer is regulated and expensive, it's easier and even profitable to just package and sell the mixed batch, which you could call, I don’t know, something like "Natural Light".
Kabuki Kitsune 33 minutes ago
Dum Dum's candies actually marketed this. The "Mystery flavor" comes about from when they're switching over from one flavor to another, producing a kind of "blended" random flavor for the candy.
#32
Your health insurance company could easily give you 100%, $0 copay insurance (universal healthcare)- and they do it for high level executives stationed abroad- ALL the time.
But your employer doesn’t want to offer that plan to save money for themselves- and it saves A LOT of profit- but the plan DOES exist, and it’s used every single day IN the United States. We already HAVE Universal Healthcare and a means to operate stateside.
It’s not a “we can’t” it’s a “we won’t.”
#34
Many ivy league students are not smart. Their rich parents paid for them to get in. It's the kids who are not wealthy who are actually smart.
ScntstDave 32 minutes ago
Depends on each individual. Last time I set foot in a med school, 80%+ were busy brainrotting on their phones, pnly one asked questions at the end, and several audibly saying "who gives a f". They are there to push pills and whataever toxic jabs give them the most bonus, and that's it.
#35
In the mutual aid community I find that there are a lot more givers than takers. You'd think that people giving things away to share with the community would get taken advantage of more often. I don't find that's been the case in my experience. There are lots of good people out there. You just have to ignore the jaded inner voice that tells you not to trust those in need.
#36
Nurse here: Make a living will & choose someone you absolutely trust to honor your wishes. Know & understand the different codes & what they entail. Your healthcare proxy doesn’t have to be a family member.
#37
Former licensed funeral director and embalmer in Texas here.
1. That expensive outer burial container is only preventing the dirt from crushing your loved one's casket.
2. Embalming is only necessary for public viewing, and it's only purpose is to delay decomposition.
3. Not all burial insurance policies are created equally. Your best option is to preplan and prepay with the funeral home or cremation society directly.
#38
People with lived experience of various diagnoses and conditions can be partners at the planning table through a process called patient oriented research. You can help shape research questions all the way to co-authorship and presenting at conferences.
#39
Studies found that in schools with additional music lessons not only the kids are better academically (logical thinking, ability to concentrate, problem-solving mindsets) than those without music - there also was no bullying in the music classes. We could literally heal our societies by simply adding music to classrooms.
ScntstDave 29 minutes ago
Yes, I have observed this too, starting with myself in the school choir. An absolute buttwipe of a guy joined, and after a few disruptions from him, and us giving him some "parenting", he calmed down and sang properly. He had a good voice, too. He started changing after he joined us. Humans have ALWAYS loved and did music/singing.
#40
End of life and bereavement support worker here. And clearly, after a post I saw this morning, this STILL needs to be said; when the nurses and doctors agree that it's time for the big gun painkillers and sedatives ( like a morphine/midazolam driver), they are NOT giving up on your relative or trying to "finish them off". It means your beloved has reached a point where consciousness is unimaginably painful, and we don't want to see them suffer anymore.
#41
I work in film/tv. Since MeToo, I’ve noticed a lot more women being hired but it’s primarily for the positions which appear in the opening credits. People notice the female director and think things are improving. Oh no. There’s harassment training now but it’s pathetic and not taken seriously. When there are complaints, they rarely go anywhere especially if it’s someone “important.” As we are all freelancers, we have many protections on paper but not reality.
#42
A child’s 7th grade year is their most important year. I am speaking from an educator in MD. If your child wants to go to a magnet or private high school the 7th grade is where these schools start to look.
Kabuki Kitsune 26 minutes ago (edited)
In the US, your milage is going to vary on this by state. Meaning, what year is the most important year. For example in Mississippi, where I attended high school, the most important years are Fourth grade, where NAEP testing first takes place, centering on primarily reading and math. Next is Eighth Grade. Educators look to this middle-school grade to see if early elementary literacy and math gains successfully sustain as academic content grows more complex.
#44
Most organizations become unsustainable because of leadership gaps and exploitative practices, not because what they offer isn’t valuable.
#45
Upholsterer here. Stop using armor all for your cars interior. It's like spraying on a magnifying glass that intensifies the suns rays and heat until it cracks your interior. There are of products that are better, safer, cheaper.
#47
Former UPS employee. Worked unloading the large semi trucks and loading the brown package ones. We don’t [care] about your fragile package. When you’re moving 10,000+ packages a day. Your tv gets tossed. Bumped. Dropped. Flipped. All the things you worried about 100% happens. So don’t freak out if you see the delivery driver drop it a little harder than you’d like. I promise you it’s seen worse.
#48
More people going to the library and checking out more materials = more money for the library at the end of the year. (A lot of state funding is based on numbers and usage, the higher the numbers, the higher the $$) Support your local library and be kind to your librarian.
#49
The amount of bad lawyers who can’t follow the basic rules of civil procedure would astound you.
#50
99% of children’s mental health cases are parents needing to do the work.
Elladine DesIsles 27 minutes ago
No. There are parents who are neglectful, there are parents who are ab*sive and actively causing harm to their child. But there are also very real mental health issues that can impact children and youth that are either part of their genetic or physiological makeup, or the result of events like tr*uma that were beyond the parents' control. And those parents, or the vast majority of them, must do an incredible amount of work to support the child and secure the help they need. There are examples on both sides, but the divide is vastly different from that stated here. Involved parenting absolutely makes a difference for all kids, especially those with mental health needs or neurodivergence. Involved parenting cannot prevent or cure OCD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc, or conditions with mental health impacts like autism, ADHD, or learning disabilities.
#51
Election expert here. There is virtually no voter fraud in our elections (MAYBE a few hundred cases across the country per year) and all election jurisdictions invite representatives from both parties to monitor election activities.
Elladine DesIsles 20 minutes ago
Say it again for the delusional red-hatted crowd in the back!
#52
With few exceptions, any major popular music concert is supported by recorded music tracks, to an extent that would shock and appall you.
Grape Walls of Ire 50 minutes ago
On that note, another inside scoop is the fact that those in-ear monitors are often providing real-time cues about the next line, riff, or drum fill.
#53
When you write on a tv show you are asked to repeat the plot several times in the episode because people are scrolling on their phones while they watch.
#54
Get in an accident? You can get a settlement without an injury attorney taking all your money. Google is your friend. They do literally NOTHING you cannot do.
Kabuki Kitsune 21 minutes ago
Representing yourself (pro se) in a personal injury case drastically lowers your chances of a fair payout or win. Insurance companies and defense teams easily outmaneuver self-represented individuals because civil law requires strict adherence to evidence rules, court procedures, and filing deadlines.
#55
911 dispatchers are actually very invested in your emergency - to the point that they will rat out officers that have been assigned but haven't left the station. Don't let our voices fool you, we gotchu.
Kabuki Kitsune 30 minutes ago
And then there's Crenshanda Williams... a 911 operator who hung up mid-sentence on a caller trying to report an armed robbery where a store owner was terminally shot. She famously muttered "ain't nobody got time for this". The system figured she'd hung up on roughly 825 calls.
#56
Confidence will always matter more than content of character in corporate. You could be the dumbest out there, but if you walk in with your head held high and command the room, you can take over.
#57
Your cleaning person just wants to get your house done and leave. She has neither the time nor the inclination to snoop through your personal effects.
#58
You don’t technically need a college degree to become a licensed stock trader. It’s not in the criteria. You need an inside connection so that a broker dealer will sponsor you to take the series 7 exam. Finance is the definition of an old boy’s network.
#59
Wife of a certified flight instructor/ flight school owner, a lot of these younger male pilots are all on the spectrum and don’t get them started on planes, trains, or anything related or you’ll hear ALLL about it oh, and the old guys at the small town airports always have the TEAAAAAA and they spill it every 3 weeks at ours lol (they have a whole “fly in breakfast” for them).
#60
From a TK teacher,child’s play is actually deep deep thinking. It involves communication and language development planning, employing trial and error, collaborating, elaborating, and synergizing.
#61
I work for a very large math YouTube channel but am not a mathematician myself. It's been explained to me that being confused about math is not just a thing for non-math people -- in fact, a comfort with the feeling of confusion is often what makes someone good at math. I'm talking, like, even in professional seminars where someone shares their work, often only a handful of the mathematicians in the audience even understand what they're saying. Confusion and math are BFFs.
#62
If you or your kid is going to college, fill out the FAFSA whether you think they’ll get anything or not. They might not, but it’s on file so if situations change (job loss, divorce etc.), it’s easier to file an appeal with the school’s financial aid office.
#63
This may not need to be said, but it needs to be said. NEVER piss off the people who handle your food. I've worked enough in the service industry to know that all it takes is a pissed off server to ask one of the cooks to help them out with a [terrible] customer and bad things will happen to their food and the customers will never overtly know it. Also, in a related note, potlucks are generally disgusting. You have no idea how people keep their homes or handle their food.
#65
As a Letter carrier we KNOW when someone recently went to jail and we sometimes the reason child support be finding out where yall live too.
#66
If you wipe off the lens(es) from time to time, the latest versions of phone cameras take pictures as good or better than most under-$1000 cameras. Unless you are shooting with flash, doing sports or need a long zoom lens - and already know how to use a pro-level camera - save your money. Watch a few YouTube videos on better phone photography and you’re set.
#67
Real gardening is playing a long game. You can't just get a landscaper in and expect everything to be beautiful forever, you need to plan for next year and the years after and the seasons, soil, rainfall and sunshine reveal secrets you never knew existed.
#68
Teachers come out of parent-student-teachers meetings and have the "the apple didn't fall far from THAT tree" talk after almost every meeting with each other and admin.
#69
In disaster, people are overwhelmingly generous and kind. Like we all suddenly reset and get down to basics and then create a system of care and cooperation. Rebecca Solnit called it "A Paradise Built in Hell" in her book about extraordinary communities that rise in disaster. It's a beautiful life affirming phenom to witness and experience. I will never be the same. And it happens every time. At least in my work in megafires. It's remarkable.
#70
Almost every popular brand in the United States use the same 10 factories in China; styles that have been workshopped for years will get picked up by clueless American brands, and then there is this horseshoe of Chinese grandmas and influencers owning the same items.
#71
For WEDDINGS, prioritize the venue, food & drinks, music and then everything else. No one will remember which flowers you had, but they will remember they were hungry or had a lot of fun. For THEATER - always buy tickets for the middle seats in row 20ish. That’s where you’ll have the best overall view of the show. You can still see the actors’ facial expressions but also the patterns of the choreography.
Elladine DesIsles 16 minutes ago
If I were to ever get married, I assure you, I would remember the flowers. I would literally schedule a wedding date around availability of certain flowers. I would want a small, intimate wedding and I would care a great deal about the comfort and experience of a few close loved ones, but the flowers are one thing, maybe the only thing, that I would prioritize (as an expense) because they matter to me.
#72
If you attend an opera (don't laugh, they still exist and many opera companies have done AMAZING work modernizing the experience for viewers), you would not recognize the vast majority of the singers if you saw them out of makeup. Opera stage makeup is meant to be over-the-top, and it can change a performer's age, features, ethnicity, and/or gender. I helped a singer friend rehearse for a role and I wouldn't have known it was her once she was in makeup.
#73
Retired OSHA area director. Fixing your safety program usually cures QC and environmental concerns at the same time, such that it returns a profit less than 2 years after investment in program. People with the right processes, training, and equipment are the key to fixing problems in all three areas.
#74
Property Managers of vacation rentals will 100% gossip about your nasty living habits when you check out and leave a mess. The housekeepers are on our team and they share the pics.
#76
Buying art directly from artists can be life and career altering, for the better for you (and for the artist--in ways you may never know about). Also, a lot of artists offer installment payment plans--just ask if it's an option.
#77
If you go see a school play, know that 90% of the furniture on stage actually came from the theatre teacher’s home.
#78
Your mail. The National Association of letter carriers, which represents city letter carriers, is on the verge of being taken over by MAGA.
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