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If you ever put off cracking your knuckles or some other bone due to fears of arthritis, you’ve been the victim of a long-running misconception. If you just learned this now, congratulations and don’t feel bad, as it turns out, situations like this are surprisingly common.
We’ve gathered people’s stories of learning pretty useful things embarrassingly later in life. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites, take notes if you have to and if you’ve been in the same boat before, share your own thoughts and stories in the comments section down below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My wife and I have this ceiling fan/light in our bedroom in the house we moved into two years ago. It has a remote control for the fan and lights.
About a year and a half ago the lights suddenly stopped working. The fan works well and we didn't have a tonne of money so we've just lived with lamps in the room, always being frustrated with how d**n dark it is.
I was scrolling some other thread on ~~askreddit~~ TIFU a few weeks ago and the top post was a guy talking about how his lights stopped working years ago, and then he found out that it was just dimmed (which you do by holding *down* the button on the remote).
It sounded so much like our fan I went and tried it.
Dimmed.
SouthernGal 4 months ago
I fixed the problem recently in my child’s room to their astonishment, because teens know everything and parents are stupid. ; )
RELATED:
#2
My SO and I were in a fight and he said "You are unbelievably selfish and impossible to talk to". Somehow my defense mechanisms were not engaged at that moment because I *heard* him and realized it was true. I saw for the first time that I had been (mostly) an a*****e all my life - that is - super defensive and wrong about a lot of things (aka a "narcissist"). I have since had to *learn* how to be kind, to listen, to give back and while it has been very hard (I still cringe often when I think back on many moments in my life) I now know *I* was wrong, my life is so much better.
michael Chock 4 months ago
Good for you! Most people never get there. I always tell people "knowing things makes you dumb". For us to learn, we have to first accept what we know could be wrong. I honestly believe this is why kids learn faster. They know they are wrong about everything.
#3
Not me, but my Dad. I'm in the story, though.
We used to have this swingset, which had a kid's swing on it. The kid's swing would always fill up with a huge puddle of water when it rained. To combat this, my Dad would balance it upside down on the crossbar it hung from. I always wondered *why doesn't he just drill a hole through the bottom to drain the water?* Then I thought, *that's so simple a solution, he's obviously thought of it, and why it's a bad idea, and I'll look like an idiot for suggesting it.*
So after a year of this, one day I hear him complaining while he's balancing the swing. So finally I ask "why don't you just drill a hole through the bottom of it?" He didn't even say anything. He just looked at me like I was an idiot, and walked away. I was racking my brain, trying to figure out what obvious flaw in my plan I'm missing.
A few minutes later he comes back with a drill. That's when I realized, the look wasn't directed at me. The look was "why didn't I think of that?"
I've started asking questions more often now.
#4
I used to fill the kettle by the spout... my parents have always done it this way, I thought the center part was mainly for decoration, but not functional. I don’t know why I never questioned this.
One day I bought a new tea kettle and my husband was like wtf what is inside this, and with great ease, opened the center to pull out a manual with instructions and what not.
I was drinking dirty paper water for like 2 weeks.
#5
I always thought eggplant tasted "itchy", like itchy was a flavor, like sour or salty. Fed some to my baby and his face turned red wherever the eggplant touched, and I realized we're both just allergic to eggplant. And itchy isn't a flavor.
*raspberry sound 4 months ago
I had a friend who said he liked how bananas tastes like electricity. Yeah, bud, they're not supposed to do that, you're allergic to bananas.
#6
I owned a light blue colored microwave for about three years that a family member gave me for a housewarming gift. Thought it was cool; never saw a blue microwave before. One night, a buddy asked why I never took the blue plastic wrap off my microwave, then proceeded to peel it off for me. D**n; that b***h is silver. Still miss my blue microwave sometimes though...
No Man 4 months ago
I bought my very first new car a couple of months ago... There was a barcode lable stuck to the big screen in the console. I spent a couple of days trying to peel it off without success. I was just about ready to buy some Goo-Be-Gone to peel it off. I was getting in the car to head to WallyWorld to buy to goo stuff and tried one last time to get that ticker off. I pulled just the right way and the plastic sheet protection the screen peeled right off. D'oh!
#7
After moving to a new city I went to the laundromat and the Korean lady working was yelling at me about something I couldn’t understand. After some pantomime it became clear that she was upset I was putting in the wrong detergent but it was the same kind I have been using for 8 years (since moving away to college and behind). Turns out I’ve been washing my clothes with only fabric softener for nearly a decade. They always smelled good so I never really thought about it. Not my proudest moment.
michael Chock 4 months ago (edited)
If you are not a sweaty person it's not so bad. It's the washers movement that scrubs the clothes. The detergent is to break down grease and hold the dirt in the water so it doesnt settle back onto clothes. (Still bad though)
#8
I have a flashlight that I've had for near a decade. I originally got it because it really looks like a lightsaber, and it was cheap. Plus you could twist the lens around to focus it, or so I thought. When I got it home and put batteries in it, I found out that twisting the top didn't change the focus. I assumed the top being able to twist was just a result of it being cheap.
Fast forward to a month or so ago, a storm picked up during the night so I went out to check nothing was going to blow away. As I was trying to open the gate, the flashlight slipped, and I caught it by the top part that twists, but the rest of the flashlight slid about 2 inches down from the twisty part and it turns out if you pull the top part up, it turns it into a lantern type thing for lighting up an area.
It's nothing big, but there have been times where it would have been incredibly useful to be able to put the torch down and light up a wide area...
Jrog 4 months ago (edited)
Can relate. Few years ago I bought a super high powered flashlight for a job related task, and was so bothered by the fact that it was absolutely blinding, like 80k lumens on a super narrow beam: if it reflected on a steel surface you would have a black spot in your view for hours. Twisting the lens did nothing. No dimming also. Used it with great care and a few mishaps, then left it in a drawer. Several months later, I took it out and by fiddling with it considering how to build in a dimmer, I noticed that you could adjust the beam by PULLING the lens instead of turning.
#9
My mom refused to show me how to use a tampon because she thought I should stick to pads because they were "safer". This was back when googling how to do things wasn't an option, and I was the first in my friend group to get my period and a little sheepish about it.
So basically I was shoving that sucker up there with the entire applicator for like 2 years, wondering why tampons didn't seem to work that well for me.
It wasn't until I was in high school, and one of my friends went on a c*****e against "plastic waste" and started advocating for tampons with no applicators that all of a sudden I realized I had massively f****d up.
#10
My name is Ryan.
It took me until I was in 1st grade to realize my name wasn't *in* the alphabet.
My mom had told me my name was in the alphabet, and I felt so lucky. She obviously meant the letters *to spell* my name were in the alphabet.
But nope. It took that long to realize the alphabet didn't go "W, X, *Ryan* Z....
#11
For years I would struggle to take the cap off new deodorant (the one under the lid). It always is so stuck down onto the deodorant stick.
I had an "ah-ha" moment a year or so ago that I could simply crank the deodorant stick up until the cap could easily be removed.
I'm 34. It took me until age 34 to realize this.
Multa Nocte 4 months ago
I'd like to thank the BP staff for this particular edifying photograph. However, I was so distracted by it that I didn't even follow what was being said.
#12
My family always had a cup next to the bathroom sink in case you needed to rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth or maybe get a quick drink of water in the middle of the night. My grandma had the same cup at her house. I used it for years whenever I was thirsty. One day she saw me doing this and said, “Don’t use that cup. Thats where grandma puts her teeth.”.
#13
Back in the early 2010s, my boyfriend and I had a PlayStation that we used for Netflix etc since we didn’t have a smart tv. The controller was on such a short cord that we would always have to get up from the couch to change the program or push any buttons. My boyfriend also used to have to sit on the floor up close to the tv to play his video games, since the cord was so short.
One day my brother came to visit. We put something on Netflix, and got up to use the remote like we always did. My brother proceeds to unplug the controller, hands it to us, and says “you realize this is a WIRELESS controller right?”
We are dumbfounded. Why would there be a cord coming from it? Turns out that’s just to charge our wireless controller.
Mind. Blown.
#14
So I had always assumed that gas stations had pipes that led to a nearby oil plant or something. I live in Houston so during hurricane Harvey in 2017 there was so much news about the gas stations being empty because they weren't being filled. I was in the car with my sisters and we were talking about it and I mentioned I don't understand how the gas supply was limited when the pipes are underground and not affected by the flooding. They both looked at me with the most confused faces ever and one of them said "you do know that trucks come to fill up gas stations right...?" And I was completely shook by this and had no idea and they asked me "so when you see the big trucks at little gas stations in the city with the tubes in the ground what do you think they were doing??" And I replied "... filling up their gas..." Not something I did wrong but definitely something I thought wrong for 17 years.
GalPalAl 4 months ago
The first time I heard the word deaf, as a child, I really thought it was death. And I questioned why would they use the same word for something so entirely different from the other word until I learned the spelling. English is a difficult language to learn because of reasons like that
#15
Found out I was lighting incense wrong. Boyfriend and I got a bunch to add to our collection of nice smells and we would light them and they would just start a little inferno. Convinced we were buying cheap, garbage incense we stopped using them. I proceed to buy a different brand in a hope those would work. I test light and same thing it just goes up in an inferno. Roommate informs us you are supposed to blow them out once they catch. Oops.
#16
One day I used the key fob to remotely start my dads car. It was an”oh s**t” moment for him. Two years and he didn’t realize he had this handy little function.
Tim Gearing 4 months ago
Boomer here: I remember when cars had a crank handle to assist starting😂
#17
Not cause I’ve been doing something wrong my entire life but saw it wrong. I’m colorblind and my entire life I thought peanut butter was green until I turned 19. And when I found out it was brown my mind was blown. It took so long because no one really talks about the color of things like that.
Uncle Panda 4 months ago
I made it all the way to high school electronics class before I found out I was color-blind in the orange-red part of the spectrum. If you slowly transitioned from orange to red, I'll keep calling it orange long after everyone else sees red. We were working on color TVs when I heard, "Why do you make everybody's faces orange?" "What do you mean, they look ok to me." "Look at everybody else's' TV." "Oh..."
#18
Living in a foreign country where I was actively learning the language. Social cues go a long way when learning a language on the spot. That being said, someone once said a phrase to me while serving a hot dish, which I assumed as meaning "excuse me". After going through crowds and lines, replicating the same phrase in an attempt to be respectful of those around me, I abruptly found out that the phrase actually meant "enjoy". Hind sight, completely makes sense. The odd looks I would get by saying "enjoy" while squeezing past people all of a sudden made sense..
Edit: Wowzers, y'all really know how to make a grown man blush! Thanks for the gold and silver you beautiful beautiful strangers. I'm glad my mistakes bring such enjoyment and hilarity to the world 😂.
So this happened while I was living in Vietnam. The phrase was "xin mời". It was even more deceiving because it was similar to the phrase for "sorry" which is "xin lỗi"...That was year 1. The following 3 years were full of similar mistakes. Tonal languages are tough!
Moana Manana 4 months ago
I have Turkish friends. One day one friend invited me over because their mother visited her from Turkey. I went and we had Turkish coffee. Everythin looked so nice. The mother proceeded to poor coffee in the very small cups and lastley poored herslef one cup, but blew lightly on top of that while pouring it. She made that just for her, not for others. I didn't think much about it, just noticed it. Before she left to Turkey again, I invited them and proudly made the same coffee. I pour her the first cup (as she is the eldest guest) and blew into the coffe while doing so. Everone started laughing instantly. They explained, that the mother doesn't like the foam from the coffee, and the blowing makes it a thinner layer concentrated only on one side of the cup. 😂🙄 They mention it all these years later....
#19
I grew up without a mom. She passed when I was 6. I was afraid to ask my dad how to put a tampon in. One day I made a comment (about age 18) to some friends that tampons hang out too far out your bajingo and made me feel like I waddled when I walk. My friend asked me how I put them in. I thought it would get stuck up there and wasn’t inserting it far enough. Did it wrong for about 5 years. My friends still make fun of me for it. I can’t help but use the dead mom card, but looking back it’s pretty common sense how to shove it up there.
Edit: for all those asking: I didn’t really feel comfortable with my body, so I’m not sure I really understood what the directions were asking. For others asking: my dad was a really good dad. Obviously he made some general mistakes as a parent (as all parents do) but as a substitute mother he did a great job. He taught me how to shave my legs (funny voices and all) and he was a Girl Scout troop leader for almost 10 years. He tried to figure out how to French braid, and he did comb my nasty a*s ratty hair on a daily basis.
#20
I was dating an asian woman some years ago, and when we got Chinese takeout, she completely unfolded the box and laid it flat like a plate.
She said that was by design, and for the life of her could never understand why her friends always scooped it out onto another plate when the box *was* the plate.
I now do this all the time and it weirds people out.
David Morgan 4 months ago
This seems American - every Chinese/Indian takeaway I've ever seen in the UK came in a disposable (theoretically reuseable when washed) tupperware container. I guess that's so it can be resealed (preventing any smells in your fridge) and stored if you don't eat the whole thing.
#21
Sometimes I assume I know the lyrics to songs I have heard on the radio for a long time.
I always sang Toto's Africa as "I miss the rains down in Africa..." until someone made fun of me and told me it's "I bless the rains down in Africa."
I argued, "That makes no sense! Why would someone bless rain? It's a song about longing to return to Africa, which is why they miss the rain."
Then I went home and looked up the lyrics.
Little Bit 4 months ago
I've always misheard lyrics. I thought Toto's Africa was, "I guess the rain's down in Africa" When I was a kid I thought that most pop songs were just a bunch of random words made up to make it rhyme.
#22
Well... This was a few years ago. I was the director of IT for a very large company. I was given a new cellphone and told to setup my voicemail.
I don’t know that when I recorded my name it would be played to whomever I leave a voice mail for.
Well the name I recorded was, “Dooder84 Corporate IT Godddd!!!”
I worked there for 4 years until someone in the hallway referred to me as the “corporate IT GoD!”
I was so embarrassed.....
#23
We bought a nice liquor cabinet. We got it delivered and noticed it was a bit shorter than we thought. No biggie. Three years later, we’re moving. Lift up cabinet and these beautiful, ornate, screw on legs wrapped in tape and bubble wrap fall off the bottom. Looks so much better now!
#24
Not wrong for years, but I work help desk, and we use a specific (terrible) piece of software for our Support system, IBM Notes.
It turns out, that for the first 9 months I had been working there, it wasn't setup properly, so I wasn't sending any emails from it, at all. No notifications that the ticket went to me, no responses from me, no close notifications, **nothing.**
Someone noticed this, took a look, and fixed a setting. I immediately sent out over a thousand emails to everyone in the company.
#25
No one really ever told me you don’t need to buy shoes with the ‘two-fingers’ space in front of the toes after your feet stop growing.
I had been buying an entire size too big until about age 23.
Twenty. Three.
One day in college I decided to try a pair of Merrell barefoot type shoes and after reading the sizing guide, BAM. Mind blown.
It’s terribly obvious mistake I (29F) like to blame on being an only child. But really I’m just a f*****g moron.
#26
Until last week, when my father in law would made a phone call on his very basic non-touch-screen flip phone he would open the menu, scroll to the phone icon, open it, hit the soft key for contacts, scroll to the person he wanted to call, press ok, then press the soft key to call.
When he mentioned how he preferred his landline because he could just dial the number, I said "Humour me. Just dial the number and hit the talk button." I've never seen a man so simultaneously grateful and embarrassed.
#27
When i first got a debit card and would go out to eat at restaurants with my friends, i would leave a cash tip on the table. when i got the receipt to put how much i was paying i would write down how much money i left on the table. for at least 6 months i gave double tips to every waitress i had...
#28
My mom has been pronouncing Massachusetts "Massa Two S***s" for years and no one corrected her because they thought she just had strong feelings about Massachusetts.
#29
When I was 5 a pizza hut employee told me that the powder on the breadsticks was called fairy dust. Ordered extra fairy dust on my breadsticks until I was around 14 when an employee said ‘do you mean garlic salt?’ It still devastates me to realize how obtuse I was.
#30
Former school nurse here. The number of high school boys who don't know what circumcision is is amazingly high. Many think they were "born circumcised." When they finally see a f******n, they are in complete awe. When they find out the brown ring on their p***s is a scar from when their f******n was removed, they are also amazed.
#31
Not mine, but my dad has been spelling his name wrong his whole life (he’s 51). His name is Jeffrey, and he’s been spelling it like that since he learned how to spell his name. A few months ago my mom pulled out his birth certificate, and we all learned it’s actually spelled Jeffery. Not sure if he spells it correctly now, but it was definitely an “oh s**t” moment for him.
#32
Since the dawn of time, I would pick up the silverware and utensils out of their tray in the dishwasher and put them away in their drawers then go back and pick up more out of the dishwasher. Then one day I saw my wife lift the tray out of the dishwasher and I legit stood there with my mouth open.
Laura Spring 4 months ago
My father watched me empty his dishwasher once. Same reaction, stood there with his mouth hanging open.
#33
My eldest child had a penchant for blowing out of his diapers—we tried everything but multiple times a week we had to pull that p*o-filled onesie over his head and inevitably give our now super duper p*o covered infant a bath.
Around when I was pregnant with our second, a post went viral about how infant onesies are designed to be broad at the shoulders so you can pull them down and off instead of over the head.
Poor kid would have had so many fewer p*o in hair incidents had I known that then.
michael Chock 4 months ago
Most of them have the neck go all the way out to the shoulders, they overlap the fabric so it stays up.
#34
My mom use to refer to me as a “bull in a china shop”. Always heard it as “bowl in a china shop”. Thinking it was a compliment. At about 22 I hear someone else use the phrase and realized she meant “bull”, not “bowl”.
#35
Couple years ago i was trying to open some toothpaste and had to break the seal of the tube, i used to look for something like a nail to break it, then one day i looked at the pointy end of the cap and thought 'what if I could use this to break it' and oh s**t it did fit and broke it effortlessly, and so did every other tube product i had in the house and their respective cap, my mind was blown.
#36
I was at crate and barrel with my gf talking about how it's so weird they don't make tongs so you open them up super wide and then press in; I thought it was odd that they only gave you a super tiny opening. In the middle of me saying this she just presses the button at the bottom of the tongs I was holding and I stop mid sentence in shame.
#37
Do you ever buy soda in a 6- or 8-pack of bottles, and then struggle to twist and pull bottle out of the tight plastic rings? There's a pull tab connected to a serrated line through the plastic. You can just pull that and then the plastic will break easily when you pull at the bottle.
My aunt taught me about this over 20 years ago, because no one in my immediate family was aware of it. I let my fiancee in in the secret just last week.
#38
I used to think just reading the material was how everyone studied, so thats how I did it too. I never quite understood why my grades were so low, id be like "I read the page, idk what happened!" until I saw my friend making flow charts and summaries and I was like "we dont have to do that you know" and he was like "nah, im just studying". It blew my mind how much better my grades got.
#39
I taught myself how to play clarinet.
Six months later someone told me that I'd been playing with the mouthpiece upside down.
The Darkest Timeline 4 months ago
That’s some feat. Most of the time, if you play with the mouthpiece upside down, it will just squeak.
#40
It wasn’t very long, but when I was learning to drive my dad was explaining the rule of thumb regarding a safe distance to be behind the car in front of you. I thought it meant to hold your thumb up and if your thumb didn’t cover the entire car you were too close to it. When he caught me doing that he asked me what I was doing. When I explained he burst out laughing, then considered it, and concluded it wasn’t a bad idea but perhaps a bit distracting.
#41
When I was a kid, I was told that the paper that came on cupcakes/muffins was edible.
I would spend a decade eating them like this (paper and all), until a friend pointed it out.
David Morgan 4 months ago
Well...if you ate the paper, technically it WAS edible. Not intentionally so, but still.
#42
Always took things for "granite".
#43
That you do, in fact, need to disassemble your laundry drier and clean the lint out from underneath the drum once per year.
I’m 31 and never knew this, no one ever said anything, never saw anyone do this. Crappiest thing is that my parents *also* learned this the hard way and never bothered to give me a tip when I bought my first drier.
Luckily, the wife and I discovered the lint buildup when changing the rollers. I said to my parents “wow it really builds up in there!” and they were like “oh yea you need to do that like once a year”.
WAAAAAAAT.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
Disassemble it? I open the door, remove the lint catcher, empty it, and put it back. Is there more to it than that?
#44
I owned a car with swivel headlights and it was very nice to have that. Discovered three years in that I had never turned on the swivel feature.
#45
Travel frequently for work and only just noticed that most laptop bags have a strap to place over a rolling suitcase handle.
David Morgan 4 months ago
To be fair, bags don't usually come with instructions. I've seen people use that strap to attach/hold document folders, water bottles and a coat.
#46
I thought of a second one. I was incredibly sheltered growing up. Anything s*x-related was taboo and not discussed.
I was in middle school when instant messaging really became mainstream. I couldn’t understand why the boy I had a crush on kept laughing at me and telling me not to use the shorthand “c*m” for “come.”
I didn’t find out for a few years.
Related: I genuinely thought a hand job was essentially frantically waving side to side with the palm on the p***s and a blow job was - you guessed it - blowing on a p***s until probably around 8th grade?
*sigh*.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
That is not an embarrassing age to find out that. Contrary to mainstream media, not all 12-15 year olds are talking about s*x, let alone having it.
#47
When I was washing my pets’ water dishes and then dried them, I thought, ‘why tf am I drying the inside when it’s just going to be filled with water?’
I’ve had pets my whole life. I have been doing this s**t for thirty f*****g years. Drying every time. WOW.
Jaya 4 months ago
To be fair, drying isn't just to make things dry, it also makes them cleaner. Your hands for instance are much cleaner after washing and drying them, than after only washing them. I don't remember the numbers, but I was really astonished when I found out how much of a difference drying makes.
#48
Caulk guns. Everyone says that you're supposed to pull it towards you, but I saw a reddit comment saying that they're designed to be pushed away instead. My boss looks at me funny for doing it, but it's exponentially cleaner and tighter!
Edit: quite a few of y'all are mentioning that you're unclear on what you're pushing away. When you caulk you slide the entire gun across the crack that you're sealing, so it's that. You can only ever slide it towards you or away from you (unless you're going sideways, I guess) and most people pull the entire gun and tip towards them whereas sliding it in the other direction works too. A few of y'all sound like you know exactly what you're doing and have added a couple other tips on how to do it cleaner and better, too, so thanks for that.
#49
When I realized, at 18, that the phrase is “up and at em” not “up and Adam”
I was always wondering who the hell adam was, thought it was a stupid phrase.
#51
Not that I was doing it wrong, but I never knew the little arrow next to the gas gauge in the car told you what side the gas tank was on. Mind freaking blown when I found out!
Edit: I’m 40.
#52
F**k, after living 5 years with my fiancé, this happens all the time.
But the most embarrassing was when she saw me open a new stick of deodorant. I wrestled that little plastic cover off for a minute or so before she said “why don’t you just twist the stick up and lift it off”
Why is she marrying me lmao.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
I used to used the nail clippers from the next shelf to grab the tab on the lid and pull the lid off.
#53
I didn't realise I had to brush the BACK of my teeth as well as the front (I was a dumb kid - I blame toothpaste adverts) unto I was 15. Had 9 filings and a root canal.
That tired person 4 months ago
Hi. I'm 14. Today I learnt that you have to also clean the back of your teeth. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
#54
For 20+ years I’ve been saying “play it by year” instead of “play it by ear”
After a lengthy argument and a quick google search, I was left with my tail between my legs.
#55
Not really doing something but I completely thought that the White House was in Washington THE STATE until I was like 23
It's a hole in my knowledge I can neither explain nor defend, I have since visited and confirmed it's in DC.
DeoManus Argentem 4 months ago
To those confused on Washinton DC's location - it's because at the time it was made the country's capital it was roughly at the geographical center of the country. The state was first suggested to be called, "Columbia", because of the Columbia River, but a congressman suggested "Washinton" to avoid confusion.
#56
Pronouncing hybrid as "High Bird". My husband repeated it to me in a Snuffaluffagus voice and I swear I had a Ratatouille food critic flash back to every time in my life I said it wrong. I was 33.
#57
Learned earlier last year “bust a nut” isn’t an expression for when something hits your nuts or you land in a way that crushes them.
#58
Condoning or justifying judgement. If you practice being objective you realise a lot of inner conflict comes from trying to make the world fit into your judgements.
#59
You don't need body spray or even have or try to be the coolest guy in the room to get a date. Sometimes just being a clean looking guy, who walks with his head held high and is confident enough to start a conversation is enough.
SouthernGal 4 months ago
Confidence is very attractive, but hard to fake if you don’t have it. If you don’t, sincerity and honesty can work well too.
#60
I didn't find out that I was supposed to punch out for lunch until my third job. And even then it was because a coworker mentioned it in passing that they were clocking out for lunch.
#61
Realized the multi colored tape measures glued to the door frames of gas stations etc. are for identifying robbers, not for measuring yourself as you walk out. I mean, they can be, but that’s not why they are there. Unless you’re the robber.
#62
I am lactose intolerant. I genuinely did not know this for the first 25+ years of my life. I always had to go to the bathroom after eating something with cheese in it. One day it just clicked: I bought some Lactaid, took it before the next time I ate cheese, and I didn't have to go to the bathroom.
...it was mind blowing. I have no idea how I didn't make the connection for years. So I guess you could say instead of having a "Oh s**t" moment I had a "No s**t" moment.
Edit: Thanks for the Silvers strangers! As expected of reddit, my top comment of all time is about how to avoid pooping.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
I'm curious, because I've heard of a lot of people who are lactose intolerant give up cheese, is there more lactose in cheese in other parts of the world? In Australia, cheese that has been aged, so basically any hard cheese, has no lactose. Soft cheese can also sometime be lactose free, or very little, which you check by looking at the label to see if the sugars are <1g. I'm lactose intolerant and eat cheese all the time!
#63
Last month was the first time I discovered lint rollers were peelable. Literally sat there for a minute to take that in.
Edit: I'm 20.
#64
Not using the power level setting in the microwave. I used to have spilled milk or would frequently start, stop, stir and heat the food again before I realized that the power level setting exists just for this reason, thanks to Reddit.
#65
I accidentally logged my tips incorrectly for the first month or so of working at a restaurant. I’m not quite sure how I was doing it, but I ended up not getting taxed on a couple hundred dollars because I never logged them as income.
Edit: this was only on cash tips, and I have now been made aware that I didn’t need to log cash tips in the first place? So I did nothing wrong?
#66
Kraft mac and cheese. Up until a few months ago I would drain the noodles, add them back to the pot, then add the milk, butter, and cheese packet. It took forever to get all the clumps out.
Then I realized it would be way easier to just add the milk, butter, and cheese to the already hot pan and make a cheese sauce while the noodles are draining. No more clumps.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
And Americans hate on British food. Macaroni Cheese is SO EASY to make from scratch that I can't understand why Kraft is even a thing.
#67
Winding a watch that was battery powered. For like, a year. Ah, f**k. Thanks for making me think of that.
#68
Playing an N64. Now, it wasn't "years," only about one. I got an N64 for Christmas the year they came out with Super Mario 64.
Unfortunately, my family had splurged to get me the game and the video game system, so I didn't get a new game until my birthday nearly a year later (October birthday, FYI.) Until that time, I played the N64 by gripping the outer prongs of the controller. It wasn't until I saw a diagram of recommended play styles in the instruction booklet for "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire" that I realized it was much easier to put my left hand on the center prong.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
I may be in the minority, but I think the N64 controller is one of the worst designed controllers ever.
#69
Pronouncing Chik-Fil-A as Chik-fil-Uh
Never had one near me so mostly just pronounced it in my head that way, so no one corrected me. Once one opened near me I told the boys at work we gotta go try some Chik-Fil-uh!!! They still bust my balls about it.
#70
Apparently the red ring around the bologna is *not* supposed to be eaten.
michael Chock 4 months ago
Same with good cheese and summer sausage. My first few meat and cheese plates were not good.
#71
You can put aluminum foil over a baking tray to bake things and the baking tray doesn't get dirty or stained.
#72
I've learned that it's more efficient to vacuum *before* dusting.
The vacuum cleaner motor tends to stir up the dust as the machine travels around the house. Better to vacuum first, let the dust settle, then dust the house.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
What? No. You dust first so that anything displaced is then sucked up by the vacuum.
#73
I was 30 when I found out that an ‘event calendar’ as I called it, is not a thing and it’s an ‘advent calendar’. I was 32 when I found out advent is not short for adventure...
#74
When I was younger I used to suck on plastic soda bottles, which would work until I had to pull away and sometimes get my lips pulled in by the vacuum which hurt. Just tipping the bottle was revolutionary!
setsuriseikou 4 months ago
In other news, spoons are so much more useful when held with their backs down!
#75
My whole life I had been making PB&J using a butter knife for the jam.
My wife saw and said I was doing it the hard way and to use a spoon.
She was right, spoon is much easier. Scoop the jam out, then use the back of the spoon to spread it.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
This is where the cream on first or second on scone comes from. In some places the jam is thicker than the cream or vice versa. You put the one that is thinner on with a knife.
#76
I didn’t know you could take off the caps of those refrigerated coffee creamers... I had been stabbing through the foil with a knife for years until my uncle saw me and asked what the f**k I was doing....... lol
David Morgan 4 months ago
I ALWAYS pierce the foil instead of peel them. If they are at room-temperature, they can spurt when peeled open, but they don't if you just make a small hole (to start with).
#77
I recently realized that the arrow to the right of the 'write comment' box on Reddit mobile, lets you skip to the next comment thread.
#78
When I used to check my email, I would go to AltaVista and type "please go to yahoo.com.".
#79
I used to open a banana by holding it in the middle and peeling it down traditionally from the stem after snapping it to the side.
Then I saw a documentary about monkeys. They open them by driving their thumb into the other (flat end) and push in like it's a button. The air bubble pops it out then they peel it back. Bonus - the stem is like a handle to hold it from. Not taking financial investing advice from monkeys, but bananas? They're onto something.
#80
.... it changed my life as someone revealed to me how to prevent water splashing on my buttocks while taking a dumb.
The Goo King 4 months ago
Euro style toilet, where the water is much lower? Austrian style toilet, with a poop shelf? A hole in the ground? The standing poop? We need to know!
#81
You're supposed to hold a wine glass by the stem if it has white wine in it. Keeps it cooler for longer. "Cupping" the wine glass is for when you're having red wine. (If by "easier" we mean, the wine was nicer for longer).
#82
All my life I was judgemental of coffee drinkers for being too weak to wake up naturally and too weak to kick their a*******n. But after I had kids and sleep wasn’t always realistic (changing diapers in the middle of the night, etc) I took up the habit. It tastes great and gives you a happy positive outlook on life. It’s a good d**g. The silver lining to abstaining from caffeine all these years is that I saved a TON of money by avoiding Starbucks.
#83
Wiping my a*s.
I always thought everyone reached their hand between their legs, but after someone making a joke about wiping their a*s, I asked how they did it. Then for curiosity sake I asked a bunch more people. I'm the only person I know that wipes their a*s from between their legs
EDIT: Seems to be more common than I thought. I always thought everyone did it like me but I guess it's a pretty big split. Everyone I have asked near where I live all wipe from the side or standing up.
#84
How I pronounced ‘th’ as ‘ff’.
#85
I was going to post about using the wrong gears on a bicycle when going uphill, but then I did a quick search about it and I’m even more confused.
#86
I was taught when I learned to drive to adjust side mirrors so that you can see the side of your car along the edge of the mirror. After almost getting clipped a few times I learned that you actually want to adjust it so that there is a smooth transition of an object from side to rearview with no overlap, and merging got loads easier.
For those wondering, watch another car as you pass/are passed and try to line it up horizontally so that you can see one headlight in the side mirror and the other headlight in your rearview mirror with no overlap. Then adjust the vertical height so it looks balanced between the two mirrors.
(Obviously make sure you don’t run into someone while fiddling with your mirrors, use a little common sense, please.).
#87
Post it notes supposed to have the sticky down the edge not along the top.
David Morgan 4 months ago
Why? What benefit does that have? Most sticky notes are square anyway, not noticeably rectangular. It doesn't much matter what orientation they are in, and you aren't avoiding the sticky edge (as you might have to manage a ring-bound notepad's coils if you are left-handed).
#88
Using duck tape when zip ties are way better and for some nice sturdy ones are around the same price as a roll of duck tape.
The Other Guest 4 months ago
Duct tape. It's duct tape. Unless, of course, you are using the Duck Tape *brand* of duct tape, in which case carry on.
#89
Stirring sugar into a cold solvent like water or lemon juice? Use a butter knife instead of a spoon. Creates a centrifuge more conducive to dissolving the sugar.
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Jose Ortiz 4 months ago
Not only once but 2 times looked for my phone with my phones flashlight smh
Papa 4 months ago
My wife has walked around the house looking for her phone . . . while talking to someone on it.
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Little Bit 4 months ago
I work for a company that supplies workwear and PPE. It never ceases to amaze me how many fully grown adults don't know their own clothing and shoe size. It's quite a challenge when they're ordering on the phone. If you don't know, how am I supposed to know if I can't see you?
Rika 4 months ago
In their defense, it's near impossible to know your size anymore, there are huge differences between brands. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you my size for sure. It's EU34 for some brands and EU40 for others. Same with shoes. Doesn't your company have a chart with measurements ? It's the only thing I would trust for workwear/PPE, it might be dangerous to wear stuff that doesn't fit right.
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Jose Ortiz 4 months ago
Not only once but 2 times looked for my phone with my phones flashlight smh
Papa 4 months ago
My wife has walked around the house looking for her phone . . . while talking to someone on it.
Load More Replies... Little Bit 4 months ago
I work for a company that supplies workwear and PPE. It never ceases to amaze me how many fully grown adults don't know their own clothing and shoe size. It's quite a challenge when they're ordering on the phone. If you don't know, how am I supposed to know if I can't see you?
Rika 4 months ago
In their defense, it's near impossible to know your size anymore, there are huge differences between brands. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you my size for sure. It's EU34 for some brands and EU40 for others. Same with shoes. Doesn't your company have a chart with measurements ? It's the only thing I would trust for workwear/PPE, it might be dangerous to wear stuff that doesn't fit right.
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