Our brains just love symmetry! So much so that when we see a fine example of things just falling nicely into place just as they should, it satisfies us deep within our souls.
Of course, when we encounter the opposite - the wonky, the askew, the lop-sided - it triggers a vague feeling of discomfort. This reaction is stronger in some than in others, but even those of us who would consider themselves chill about imperfections can get fixated on certain mistakes.
Can't understand what I mean? Well, as a follow up to previous efforts here and here, Bored Panda has collected another list of things that aren't quite right and are sure to set the alarm bells ringing. Scroll down below to check them out for yourself, and let us know how they made you feel in the comments!
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What The Actual Mother ******* **** Is This *******
So what lies behind this fascination with all things symmetrical? Well, according to an article in HowStuffWorks, it comes from the fact that most objects in the real world are symmetrical. "This is particularly true of nature: the radial symmetry of starfish or flower petals, the symmetrical efficiency of a hexagonal honeycomb, or the uniquely symmetrical crystal patterns of a snowflake," they write. "In fact asymmetry is often a sign of illness or danger in the natural world."
People Whose Desktops Look Like This
Preth Any Button
"And, of course, human beings are symmetrical, at least on the outside (some internal organs like the heart and liver are off-center). Decades of research into sexual attraction have proven that both men and women find symmetrical faces sexier than asymmetrical ones. The leading explanation is that physical symmetry is an outward sign of good health, although large-scale studies have shown no significant health differences in people with symmetrical or asymmetrical faces."
"The simple explanation for our attraction to symmetry is that it's familiar. Symmetrical objects and images play by the rules that our brains are programmed to recognize easily."
This Neighborhood I Saw On Google Maps Really Hits Me Hard
Well You're Not Wrong
In an essay called The Symmetrical Universe, Alan Lightman, American physicist, writer, and author of The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, writes:
"Symmetry leads to economy, and nature, like human beings, seem to prefer economy. If we think of nature as a vast ongoing experiment, constantly trying out different possibilities of design, then those designs that cost the least energy or that require the fewest different parts to come together at the right time will take precedence, just as the principle of natural selection says that organisms with the best ability to survive will dominate over time."
How The **** Does This Happen?
It’s Like They Want Me To Have An Aneurysm
So try to relax whilst perusing this list - your sense of discomfort or even anger at the asymmetry of things is fully justified, and is an appropriate human reaction to these design outrages. Good symmetry is good organization and our brains are hardwired to appreciate that!
This Chandelier At A Restaurant I Ate At Bothers Me So Much
This Stove
this would drive me nuts. would end up only cooking half of my food...
That. One. Pole.
Someone Thought It Would Be Funny To Do This At The Corner Of Every Page Of This Notebook
This Teacher Doesn’t Erase The Board Fully And Continues To Use It
These Lights
Just Re-Pave The Damn Road At This Point
a symbol for the futile attempts to fill up and close the cracks in a modern western society ......... or something like that
Load More Replies...Aaaaagggghhhh! I HATE this stuff. I ride a motorcycle and this is lethal when it is wet. It gives as much grip as greased ice.
Even just walking on it in bad weather is risking limbs... and yep, poor grip and anything moving is a bad combo. Considering the amount of times they'd have to fix this and how badly it holds up it's probably also massively more expensive than just repaving it in the end.
Load More Replies...I wish they would do this in Michigan...our roads would last longer instead of being full of potholes!
They do do this in Michigan. They totally redid a road by my house (grinding it to the dirt) then a few months later they came through and cut the road up and slathered it with this stuff. Maybe for better expansion?
Load More Replies...Looks like roads in Sydney where councils are too cheap to make them properly!
They would if someone went and put rainbow colours in some of those squiggles. Seems all the rainbow crosswalks in canada keep getting vandalized. People can't tolerate colours associated with the gay community
Oh that is NOTHING compared to my friend's road. It was in need of a total resurfacing when she moved there....in 1977. Since then they just patched over and over. I came across some road guys one day just standing there staring at the road so I had to stop and ask what was up. The one guy shrugged and said, "well, we were sent out to patch the holes after a complaint but.....we don't know where to start!!!" The road is FINALLY being resurfaced this month. After 50+ years. ONLY because homeowners got together and threatened a law suit if it wasn't done OR their property taxes SEVERELY reduced retroactively.
This happened at my place! I thought someone had spilled oil but then it stayed, and stayed until a council worker told me it was repair!!!
Never understand why road crews do this. When it gets so bad that the way looks like this or worse, it's time for a full paving job, not just crack taring.
If the road is cracking so much that you are forced to do this, it's time to replace the road. They should do what the pavers in Carolina do...mix old finely chopped up roof shingles into the black top. It gives it flexibility to expand with extreme changes in temperature and fights off the destructive effects of heavy rain.
Looks like my street where I grew up. It was always last on the paving list.
They do this a lot around where I live. Honestly it's nice because being in Wisconsin they redo roads all the freaking time. Which is very annoying- my parents live 10-15 minutes from us, except for right now because the 2 main ways to get there have road closures, so it takes 20 minutes to get there. Although if it was on the roads around here there generally would be the layer of toilet paper over the top of it if it's new.
NO! Embrace this beauty, that’s what you need to do. How often do you see a road like this?! It’s super dope.
No. Just a cheapest way to fill the cracks on the street. But if the street is cracked so badly that you need this much filling it just looks ugly and is probably better idea to re-pave it.
Load More Replies...My Grandfather Doesn’t Peel The Plastic Off Of Anything And Won’t Let Me Peel It Off. I’m About To Have A Heart Attack
When You Play The Sims But Forget To Rotate
Meanwhile In Supermarket
The Way This Pizza Has Been Cut
Okay What The Hell
My Friend's New Front Door
Even worse the new door and the sidewalk don't line up. You would step wrong every time use went through the door.
911 - I'd Like To Report A Crime
that's a clue, in a find the treasure game. You can imagine that was more effort to insert that piece in that position than to place it perfectly
At My Closest Train Station. I Think I Need To Move
ON Is Red, OFF Is Green
I Was High In The Road And Was Not Sure If It Was The Weed Or Not So I Took A Picture For Later
You Had One Job
This Building Where Nothing Lines Up
Looked Down During My Shower Today. Can’t Unsee It Now
I'm Literally Screaming Inside
Finished Laying The Bricks, Boss
Did they literally just throw it on the wall and see what stick.
Not Only Is The First Light Different, The Last Light's Fixture Is Upside Down
Why Write The ‘S’ Like That? The More I Read It, The More It Mildly Infuriates Me
The Way My Mom Watches TV With Things Obscuring The Screen
How These Pipes Were Installed
Askew Angles
Cut It Wrong. I Think They
I Am Forced To Look At This Every Time I Get Up
I Put The Manhole Cover Back, Boss
But How?
Found This In Louisiana
Doesn't suprise me. I lived in LA for a year and people there are not very bright.
Why Not "Intense Raspberry"?
YOu have to know your european chocolate history ^^ The brand "Intense Raspberry" is the property of "Côte d'Or" who is the belgian equivalent of "Lindt" who is Swiss :p Thanks for listening.
This Apartment Building
If I Could Not See Them At The Same Time I Would Not Care
The Door On This House
Why?
This Stripe On My Friend's Car
Why?
Well Done
If this is a manhole cover like the other one, can't it just be pulled back up and put down correctly?
I'm Just Gonna Leave That Here
Do I Even Have To Say Anything
Horrible Cut-Out
Just Saw This Monstrosity In My Car
The Screen On My Calculator Is Slightly Tilted
Grandma's Basket Lid's Knob Was Off-Centered
Filled Up The Smoke Generator For The Patrouille De France, Boss
It’s Now An Icybelc Lane I Guess
The Battery On This Notebook
This Font Hurts Me
Noticed These Baseball Fields On A Flight Into Phoenix
The Two Ends Of The Red Line
This Clear Window Amongst The Tinted Ones
The Man On The Bathroom Sign Has One Armpit That Is Higher Than The Other
This Pizza Ad
My Friend Just Finished A Kitchen Remodel
I Just Noticed Neither The Mirror, Nor The Lighting Fixture, Are Centered With The Sink Faucet In This Hotel Room
Why?!
This Bench Is Truly Amazing
Silver Car Ruining Everything
This Building's Towers
My OCD Capsules
The Way These Dice Are Packed Really Annoys Me
This is how someone rebels when trapped in a mindless job. Just think about the people that have to manually align these dice prior to packaging. Ugh.
My Fellow Office Workers
One member of my team does this on purpose because she knows it makes me sick!
My Son’s New Dish Set
This Football Field
My guess is that the field is fine, but there is a slope, so it looks like this from air. However... THERE IS A SLOPE!!!
Ended Up Putting Pepper In My Pasta. Why Is The Pepper White And The Salt Black?!
Iowa Has 99 Counties. It Could Have An Even 100 If Not For This Monstrosity
I Really Can’t Wrap My Head Around This
Do I Need To Say Why
Why Would You Go Out Of Your Way To Do This? Why?
This Shirt
When The Robo Vacuum Ruins Its Perfect Track Lines Retuning To Base
The Placement Of Her Fork
Why? Just Why?
The Way My Grandmother Eats Pizza
How Can Someone Screw Up Like This?
Light's Installed Boss
These Christmas Kit Kats. The Design Doesn't Let You Break Them, I Had To Eat Them Like A Neanderthal
This Out Of Place M&M At The Store In Times Square
My Sister Cut A Cake And I’m About To Kill Her
My Window Isn't Centered On My Ceiling
This Tile Has Been Installed Wrong
Why? Why?
Why?
Loose Brick Replaced By A Different Colour, While The Original Is Right There At The Bottom
That one on the bottom is a spare one. You just cannot use the spare. That is there in case something happens and you need a spare :D Dwell on that!
Replaced The Missing Tile Good As New
Sidewalk's Done
The Lamps At The Evelyn Hotel Are Infuriating
How My Step Dad Decided To Close A Box Of Cereal After Eating Edibles Last Night
All Three Of My Purple Sharpies Have Completely Different Colors
The fact that the AP symbol doesn't appear on the left one bothers me more than their colors
Eenie, Meenie, Miney... No
Why Must You Do This To Me?
Looks Like It Fits
"Aren't These Suppose To Be All Caps Jim?" Nah
All Of The Lights Are Off
The Way That The Lights Are Placed On My Ceiling
Put That Sign In Windows, Boss
Asked For 3” Off She Cut Off 5”. Come Home To Find Out It Isn’t Even Straight Or Even
This Map's Color Palette
Why Aren’t You Symmetrical
This Hotel Kills Me Uuugggh
The Tiles In My Hotel Bathroom
That is a signature thing. The person who laid the tiles is the same one from the other bathroom with hexagons.
I Thought This Baseball Wall Art Was Cool Until I Noticed
Now the question is whether there are two extra blue balls or two extra red balls
Thanks, I Hate It
I Have Clearly Married A Monster
I actually do this, so that the weight of the eggs isn't all at one end. You're more likely to drop an unbalanced carton
Screw This One Locker In Particular
New Acoustic Foam Just Put Up In My School
This Window And Roof
Universal Orlando In The Main Entrance. Gets Me Every Time
Why Choc-O-Gator When It Could Be Choc-O-Dile?!
Great Work
Just Why? Isn't This More Work To Install?
Must have been pissed. (Slang for drunk, not angry). - Edited for typo.
A Soccer Field I Spotted While Flying My Drone Around
An Otherwise Perfect Australian Cricket Team Photo Ruined By A Pair Of Black Shoes
didn't see the shoes at first.. was more confused by the different lenghs of the sleves and that it doesn't add up
This Scrabble Wrapping Paper
When Teachers Do This
They Presharpened The Wrong End Of My Red Pencil
When You Order A Pizza During Finals Week In A College Town
Why Don’t They Just Cut Off The Little Corners?!
This Is Where The Tile Meets The Carpet In My Apartment's Clubhouse
First thing came up to my mind when reading the title, "What? 128 pictures?? Don't think i'll make it til the end, just scroll til i get bored". But i ended up here in the end. So yeah. Just talkin.
Me too! ... or maybe I am just a masochist who likes to view aggravating pictures of stupidity.
Load More Replies...It's an absolute nightmare trying to find replies to comments now as it just sends us down here so it hardly seems worth it to search back through over a hundred posts.
I'm waiting on approval on a post asking BP to fix this. We'll see if it works.
Load More Replies...Most of these construction projects look like they hired me to do them.
Why did they change the title to "slightly annoying"? Those were actually super annoying!
quietly sobs in a corner rocking back and forth, so entirely triggered
yes, at least 4 twitches, 5 groans and the rest are urges to put my hands through the screen and turn those mislaid tiles/manhole covers around to where I can relax again.
Most of these pictures evidence laziness, stupidity and incompetence of the designers or workers. As evidenced in one of the pictures: "No job is too simple that it cannot be done wrong" !
Im glad i they dont bother me. But Im kind of a slob.
Load More Replies...I have it when people call 'someone they know' to do work around the house (usually family), because something is bound to go wrong and you can't say a thing so you don't ruin family relationships. Long story short, my mother-in-law's uncle (!) layed tiles in my husband's flat, I wanted to hire a proper contractor, but nooooo, why bother when the abovementioned person can do the job. I can put pictures in 2 days (away from home atm), but trust me, that is going to haunt me for the rest of my life (or marriage lol).
This post just goes to show that people have no pride in their work anymore - they just could not be bothered. Unfortunately there are more of them than those of us who do care and give a fly....g f.....
Me too! ... or maybe I am just a masochist who likes to view aggravating pictures of stupidity.
Load More Replies...It's an absolute nightmare trying to find replies to comments now as it just sends us down here so it hardly seems worth it to search back through over a hundred posts.
I'm waiting on approval on a post asking BP to fix this. We'll see if it works.
Load More Replies...Most of these construction projects look like they hired me to do them.
Why did they change the title to "slightly annoying"? Those were actually super annoying!
quietly sobs in a corner rocking back and forth, so entirely triggered
yes, at least 4 twitches, 5 groans and the rest are urges to put my hands through the screen and turn those mislaid tiles/manhole covers around to where I can relax again.
Most of these pictures evidence laziness, stupidity and incompetence of the designers or workers. As evidenced in one of the pictures: "No job is too simple that it cannot be done wrong" !
Im glad i they dont bother me. But Im kind of a slob.
Load More Replies...I have it when people call 'someone they know' to do work around the house (usually family), because something is bound to go wrong and you can't say a thing so you don't ruin family relationships. Long story short, my mother-in-law's uncle (!) layed tiles in my husband's flat, I wanted to hire a proper contractor, but nooooo, why bother when the abovementioned person can do the job. I can put pictures in 2 days (away from home atm), but trust me, that is going to haunt me for the rest of my life (or marriage lol).
This post just goes to show that people have no pride in their work anymore - they just could not be bothered. Unfortunately there are more of them than those of us who do care and give a fly....g f.....