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It’s no secret that fiction spreads faster than truth. Myths are no exception. Blame the communal imagination, internet folklore, word of mouth and so on, but in reality, we are all susceptible to false claims and and wrong assumptions.

Jobs we do are no exception. Just think of the way we imagine a spy (thanks, James Bond!) or a crime detective (thanks, X-files!) and you see how easy it is to succumb to cliches.

So in order to debunk those stubborn myths surrounding common professions and see how they really work, we looked at various Reddit threads where people share the myths behind things they do for a living. The results are in below, so scroll down!

#1

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions IT - that we just Google everything. It's not true. Sometimes we remember the solution from the last time we googled it.

Nevermind04 , Solen Feyissa Report

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KJ
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Turn it off for 10 minutes and hope it works when turned back on.

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#2

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Contrary to popular belief, not every magician has a beautiful assistant. In fact, the only time I make women disappear is when I tell them I'm a magician.

captainmagictrousers , Fengyou Wan Report

#3

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions No longer my profession - BUT I was a stripper for 5 years.

We, in my experience, tend to have MOTHER issues, not father.

I'm dead serious. I've been to a lot of ex-stripper weddings. Their dads are *always* there.

The mothers not invited.

lubblylady , Eric Nopanen Report

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Pumpkin Spice
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Strippers both terrify and amaze me HOW DO YOU HOLD YOURSELF UP ON A SKINNY POLE

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Although a myth exists for probably every profession, it’s no secret that the jobs that attract the most myths are the ones that are the most unusual, intriguing and mysterious, like detectives and forensic experts.Other professions that feed our shared imagination are the more unique ones. Think of fragrance creators, ghostwriters, taxidermists and so on and so on.

Sheila Lowe has one of these incredibly fascinating professions people don’t normally know much about. Lowe is a professional handwriting examiner with more than four decades of experience. She has been qualified to testify in cases of handwriting authentication since 1985, and has also qualified in cases of personality assessment. Lowe is also a multi-published and award-winning book author with the “Forensic Handwriting Mystery” fiction series, among others.

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So Bored Panda spoke with Lowe to find out more about what it takes to be a handwriting examiner, and the myths surrounding this unique profession.

#4

People always think welders are all stupid alcoholics. In my experience most of the welders I've worked with, and including myself, are pretty intelligent alcoholics.

WAwelder Report

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Vix Spiderthrust
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've worked with addiction services and I've never met a stupid addict. I've met plenty who didn't have the greatest education due to unsettled home lives, but none that were stupid. Lots of addicts become addicts precisely because their brains never leave them alone.

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#5

That scientists know everything about every science subject. Typically, we are very specialized. I don't know shit about biology, for instance. Nonetheless, people think I know about anything sciency even though I only studied a very particular slice of something.

Another myth is that we are scientists all the time. When I play golf, I'm not calculating the trajectory of the ball. I'm just hitting the fucking ball. Usually off into the trees.

53504 Report

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censorshipsucks
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

THIS. I hate this c**p of "damn scientists flying to mars instead of curing cancer" idiots. Astrophysicists are NOT trained as oncologists. That's as thick as saying "damn auto mechanics can't fix my laptop". Grow the f**k up.

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#6

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions I work retail. We are human beings with feelings and emotions. We just want to help you out.

If you're an a*****e to us, we won't help you.

Poggystyle , Patrick Tomasso Report

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Vorknkx
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This should become an official rule. Being rude to the person serving you = refusal of service. "Yes, do take your business elsewhere."

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“In my case, my handwriting career has taken me in two different directions. The first twenty years I focused on personality assessment through handwriting,” Lowe told us. “After that, I branched into handwriting authentication—working within the court system to identify forgeries. These days, that’s mostly what I do,” she added.

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What Lowe likes the most about her profession is her ability to help people. “Whether it’s understanding them better or helping them with their legal battles—though I am not an advocate for the client, but for the truth.”

#7

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Farmer here.

I do not delight in killing the livestock, nor are any of them mistreated. We do not all support factory farms.

anon , Stijn te Strake Report

#8

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions From bomb squad, I'd say the "Do I cut the red wire or the blue wire!" cliche is tiring.

Terrorists don't follow standardized wire coloring codes.

More_Bort , wikipedia Report

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Raven Sheridan
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Do I cut the red wire, with the blue stripes? Or the blue wire with the red stripes? 🤔

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#9

That I, a simple cashier, am responsible for the pricing in the store.

consultingrodent Report

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Monday
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or the coupon policies....angry humans are dumb. They rarely stop to think about whatever they're so angry about before ranting.

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When it comes to myths surrounding Lowe’s profession, she argues that some people believe that handwriting tells everything about a person, which is certainly not true. “People are too complex for that,” she adds.

“At the other extreme, there are those who think handwriting doesn’t reveal anything about them. Also not true. I could write a lot about that.”

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Moreover, According to Lowe, most people don’t know anything at all about handwriting analysis and are surprised when they learn just how much it reveals about them.

#10

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Unemployment is not as relaxing as people may believe.

-917- , Anna Shvets Report

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InvincibleRodent
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like to say that for many, the two worst feelings in the world are having a job, and not having a job.

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#11

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions > 'Therapists will make me talk about s**t I don't want to.'

We really don't. If we are working on your anxiety I'm not going to ask you about your first sexual experience unless YOU think it's relevant.

> 'Therapists get in to your head and make you do s**t you don't want to'

That's Jedi. Not us. If I could do that I wouldn't be a therapist.

Absisvenomous , Alex Green Report

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Tracy Wallick
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's also not just paying someone to vent to them, there are actual therapeutic techniques involved. Which is why venting to your girlfriend is NOT the same as therapy.

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#12

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions That doctors are super humans who don't need to eat, sleep or have a life.
We are all human and almost all of us would put your lives before ours at the drop of a hat so please don't abuse it.

orchidbonsai , Jonathan Borba Report

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LesAnimaux
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think everyone has a reason as to why they are frustrated with doctors. I myself am very frustrated with doctors.

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Having said that, Lowe pointed out that with so few students being taught how to write in cursive these days, there is a tremendous loss. “Brain research shows how important handwriting is to training of young brains, and how it helps develop many areas, including reading, spelling, and retention.

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“Historically, illiterate people have been kept at the bottom of society. Plus, many kids today cannot read historical documents, nor even letters from grandma. We must maintain this vital skill,” the handwriting examiner concluded.

#13

Criminal defense attorney. People think our job is to find "technicalities" that allow alleged criminals to go free. Those "technicalities" are most often fundamental constitutional protections, not something like a typo in the charging documents. Our job is to make sure the government is playing fair.

seanamott Report

#14

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions No, not everyone should learn to code. It is not the new literacy. Literacy itself is a worthy enough goal, and we are losing on that front.

Also, programming is hard, and not necessarily that fun when you have to do it for work.

Everyone should learn how computers work, and everyone should be able to understand what code is, but people who imagine some kind of utopia where 80% of the population are happily employed as computer programmers...you are all smoking crack.

jseego , Ilya Pavlov Report

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Vorknkx
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am well-versed in computers, a database administrator and can fix a lot of problems... but I've never studied anything IT-related, and I know exactly nothing about coding. Computer-related skills can be very diverse and people should never assume a person can do everything simultaneously.

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#15

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Dog trainer

No Cesar Millan did not fix all those dogs issues in 30 minutes. He spent all day with the dog and family working with it getting the dog to a point where HE could prevent some of the behavior issues from occurring while in HIS control. Which is great and although the methods he used in the Dog Whisperer series tend to be pretty controversial he accomplishes a lot with the dogs he worked with. But watch the video testimonials at the end, the families always say, "we're still working with behavior X things are getting better..."

Also quick rant about people who watch Dog Whisperer and try to replicate his "Alpha" methods. Be really careful, you can do more harm than good. If you see a dog on his show being aggressive and he alpha rolls it and dominates it and your dog does the same thing and you try to replicate it, first be prepared to get bit. Second if the dog is displaying aggression because of fear or lack of socialization and you do this you'll make it worse almost without exception. Also there are other and arguably better methods of dealing with genuinely aggressive dogs.

Also most of what you learned about pack theory is wrong. It was taken from watching captive wolves from differing packs the behaviors you've been taught are "pack" behaviors are actually stress behavior occurring because of captivity and because of the mingling of different family units. So the social interactions that we've learned about don't actually occur with packs in the wild.

stoph999 , Richard Brutyo Report

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N Miller
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Much of the dog training you see on TV is about training the owner more than the dog.

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#16

Being an accountant does not require good math.

Whenever I tell people I'm an accountant, I frequently hear, "oh, you must be good at math."

Math in accounting is adding and subtracting. The difficulty lies in the rules and regulations of accounting.

LEGOF Report

#17

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions That wait staff/bartenders are uneducated/stupid.
I've worked in hospitality for seven years and worked with so many highly educated people. Nurses, refrigeration mechanics, robotic engineers, marketing graduates, aged care workers, marine biologists. I have a degree in ecology.

I can almost guarantee that your waiter has studied something after high school, whether it was a certificate, trade or university degree. But waitressing pays the bills while you're searching for something better.

alittlebitcheeky , Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist Report

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Alewa
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

...and even if someone is uneducated or "stupid" doesn't mean they should be treated with less respect.

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#18

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions I am a cable man. No sex is given to me by ladies who need the cable fixed.

PM_ME_YOUR_XBOX_KEYS Report

#19

Men in the nursing profession aren't necessarily gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that) Many of us were Paramedics and military medics/corpsmen before going into nursing.

SCCock Report

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James016
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The midwife that helped deliver my son was male. Just happened to be his shift.

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#20

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Librarian. I don't sit at a desk and read all day, I don't shush you, I don't get an advanced degree to learn how to shelve books in order, and I'm not a woman.

"Librarian" is a bit like "engineer" in that it's a term that covers a lot of sub-fields and jobs. A public librarian will do things like developing the collection (buying books for the community and removing books from the collection that aren't circulating), developing and running programs like classes and special events, and doing outreach and administrative things like budgeting. A digital librarian will work with special collections - digital or not - to organize and display them and don't interact with the public at all (one I've worked with recently: https://d.lib.msu.edu/). An academic librarian is assisting with research, conducting research of their own, assisting students in learning how to use the library, and assisting professors in developing coursework.

marisachan , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

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Minath
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to work in a college library in the UK, mainly students aged 16-19 with some adult learners and I loved my job.

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#21

I work in the laboratory, background in medical lab science.

People in other departments of the hospital seem to think that the lab is full of antisocial introverts who don't care about patients at all, and that we think of our work like an assembly line.

The introvert part is usually true, but that doesn't mean we don't care. We f*****g care, a lot. In my experience the lab is usually full of empaths who want to help people, but can't afford to get emotionally invested.

Outrageous_Claims Report

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MantisGirl15
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think I chose the right career path... I'm going to school for biology to hopefully work in a medical research lab. I'm an empathic introvert who can't get emotionally invested 😂

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#22

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions We don't abuse inmates or arrange to the death fights. The f****d up system deals with them far more cruelly than we ever could. No need to take it further.

BeardsuptheWazoo , RODNAE Productions Report

#23

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions You don't "go to sleep" under general anesthesia, and the chances of you "waking up" in the middle of surgery are practically nil.

I get that your worst fear is watching people operating on you and you can't do anything about it, but the instances of that are so low, you have a bigger chance of dying in a car accident on the way to your surgery than that actually happening to you.

x_Sligh_x , Ivan Babydov Report

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Minath
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An anaesthetist once described it to me as poisoning you enough to put you under but not so much that we kill you.

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#24

I have worked at a hotel for 8 years now in positions of power at the front desk, reservations and group sales.
First, we do not hold rooms out of inventory! When we say we are sold out, we are sold out. We are here to make sure you have an enjoyable stay, but we are a business, why wouldn't we want to sell all possible rooms? First come first served is a real thing.
Also, being rude when there is the smallest thing wrong with your stay will not get you a free night. Comping a whole stay is very rare, compensation by discounting your room rate, parking or food is much more common. If you approach me with respect I am more likely to compensate a greater monetary amount than if you're a d**k.

TheSeed2point0- Report

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Jaaawn
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hated cleaning hotel rooms. Some of the things I had to were so degrading- all on a time limit too. Humans can be utterly vile creatures.

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#25

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Graphic Designer.

No, my job is *not* colouring in.

No, it does *not* mean that I know how to draw or paint perfectly well.

And no, just because you watched some Photoshop tutorials on Youtube, does *not* mean you can suddenly do my job for me.

EDIT: Spacing. (Yes, bad spacing *does* make us cringe)

babaorom , Flo Dahm Report

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Aubrey Mortensen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

EVERY job interview I had after design school: "why shouldn't I just learn Photoshop myself? It seems really easy to just color in some things." Sure Brenda, you can do that. OR you can hire someone who spent 2 years learning all the tools to make the thing you WANT. Your plan sounds great but eventually you will send a hurried email to a contract graphic designer, pleading with them to "make it better" for $200 an hour because you have NO CLUE what bleed is.

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#26

I'm an accountant. No, I don't actually enjoy talking about tax law on my day off, so your "quick tax question" that takes me 30 minutes to explain beyond 'that depends...' is really annoying at a family BBQ.

abqkat Report

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Michael Largey
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I worked for the IRS people wanted me to justify various government spending projects. Do I look sleazy enough to be a congressman?

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#27

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions Storyboard artist in the animation industry. Making cartoons isn't playtime. My position in particular is demanding, physically exhausting, and under-appreciated. On top of that, it is more "cog in the machine" work than "creative fulfillment." My faith in my work is tested constantly.

And I am not the only one who feels like this. Virtually every artist I know always thinks about changing careers or retiring all-together. It's a hard job, and it really doesn't have to be, but... it is.

hermeown Report

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censorshipsucks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I appreciate this job so much, especially the old disney hand-drawns. I mean, to re-draw 24 pictures just to get 1 second of footage is INCREDIBLE, especially since they need to not flicker and wobble (ed edd and eddy excepted, that cartoonist sucked).

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#28

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions That working in the film industry and especially doing what i do which is directly on set is glamourous.

Let me tell you its the opposite of glamour.

14 hour days , 6 days a week, sh**ty weather, sh**ty actors, sh**ty director, sh**ty crew ( of which I am part of), sh**tymembers of public trying to get photos and asking dumb questions, sh**ty mud, sh**ty creative types making delusional demands etc.

But there are some fun things

good food, good pay and filming sex scenes is hilarious.

raquille- , Martin Lopez Report

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Minath
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A retired friend of mine is a "lowly extra" (his words) and he absolutely loves it. He's probably the most affable person I know, but even he says that the arrogance shown on set can be a bit much.

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#29

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions QA tester here. We find glitches/ bugs all the time. But it is impossible to find every one. But some that get through baffle me.

hkd001 Report

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censorshipsucks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you have to lower your IQ to average end-user level., that's how you find all bugs.

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#30

30 Of The Best ‘It Doesn’t Work Like That’ Tales Shared By Representatives Of Different Professions 1. Engineers do not design every cool thing in the world.

2. Most engineers never actually make all that much money.

3. Chances are, if you study engineering you will end up with an insanely boring office job, or an insane high pressure job working 16+ hours a day.

4. Not all engineers are super intelligent, quite a lot are actually below average intelligence.

Only_One_Kenobi , ThisisEngineering RAEng Report

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CHRIS DOMRES
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Having been an electronics repair technician for 45 years, we daily joked that the engineer who poorly designed what we are working on probably never held a screw driver in his life or gave a single thought as to making the product serviceable.

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