
Why don't people listen? Some of us are sages walking the Earth just trying to espouse the truth... soak it in. Granted we often throw out our wisdom when it is unwarranted, but it doesn't mean it's false. That is why so many people hold to the mantra of... "told you so." Maybe we should look at the statistics of when people don't follow warnings and advice.
Redditor u/FizzledTwizzle wanted to know about the times you've given advice and then all that followed after by asking.... What did you try to warn someone about except they didn't listen and it turned out very badly?Limbs
My 6 year old brother at the time was standing on the kitchen table with his socks on and it looked like he was about to jump off. I kid you not, before he jumped I literally said "don't jump off the table with socks on or you'll slip and break your arm." 5 seconds later he jumped off the table, his feet slipped out from under him, and he landed directly on his arm... breaking it.
Oh Nooooooo......
I walked in to work one day and my boss said, "Hey! I just hired somebody who used to work where you used to, her name is Xxxxxxx Yyyyyy, you know her?"
And I was just like, " Oh nooooooooo."
Yep, two nights later the owner of the bar across the street calls as we're closing up and says, "So just FYI, one of your servers is over here, in uniform, telling everybody where she works...I say 'in uniform,' but right now she's dancing on the bar and taking it off."
You've been "Shipped"
I tried to convince my roommate he was getting scammed on craigslist. We talked, we argued, I even pulled up google and showed him pages worth of people saying they should've never sent the money order. But somehow it was different cuz the bank took the check earlier that day. Well, a few days later the bank called and said the check didn't clear, which was around the same time the buyer and the "shipping company" he was using disappeared too.
Not Her
I told my boss not to hire the girl who showed up to her interview late and in a belly shirt, now we have a worker who perpetually calls out and whose dad has shown up to try to change her work schedule.
Seatbelts!
I told my college housemate that she needed to slow down her drinking because she was making horrible decisions and putting herself in dangerous situations. She threw a tantrum, screamed at me that I was a know-it-all and "not her mother" and she moved out and in with another friend. The next week she was driving drunk and wrapped her car around a tree on campus, wasn't wearing a seat belt. She broke a lot of bones in her face and looked like a monster for months. Luckily everything healed and she ended up getting the help she needed.
Say "I Don't"
I tried to tell my brother that he should not get married to someone he met only a few months ago, barely knew, never lived with, and that I personally found very shady.
He got mad at me and got married anyway.
The marriage lasted one month. Two years later my brother is in a very eventful divorce, buried in debt, lost many friends, quit his job, is back at our parents house and has depression.
This is the short version, the full one could be a whole soap opera 25th season.
Dummy
Dude was buying an apartment off-plan (meaning you pay a % before the build even starts) and he send me the plans online. I'm into architectural design so I quickly spotted it was off; all the furniture on his floorplan was shrunk dramatically to make the space appear much bigger than it actually was underlined with:
*for illustrative purposes only.
I drew up a rough quick 3d model to scale with the furniture as it was on the plan and put some real size humans in the space and sent it to him as a warning. He got angry with me and suggested that I "insulted his intelligence".
It wasn't just a little bit off, it was dramatic. The full size bath would have to be a sit up bath or a shower. The furniture was shrunk by almost 50%.
He's now the proud of owner of a micro apartment.
Told my aunt that my cousin seemed in pain when he was passing stool and urine. Everyone said that all children and babies do that. I didn't buy it so i continued pestering.
Turns out he had serious rash in his bottom due to lack of cleaning and had urine infection. the rash was so bad that the skin in that area became thinner than paper.
Hey Bernie....
My mom asking me about putting money in this company which was obviously a Ponzi scheme. I told her to not listen to her moronic cousin and not to put money in it because it is not real. She lost a few thousand dollars and asked me to get it back for her. I was so mad and begrudgingly did it cause mom has been a minimum wage worker since forever and that was all she had. I wasn't able to get all of it back. She lost half of what she put in after the feds were through with it.
In the hole
A gal I know insisted the new mansion she was "buying" would be repaired and maintained by the previous owner.
I asked her why they would do that if she wasn't paying them.
It was a land lease. That's like renting from an individual who holds on to the legal ownership. She didn't understand she had no rights and was basically living in a hotel until she was $500,000 in the hole. They kicked her out the second month of the pandemic.
A Strong Back
Guy in high school wanted to prank his best friend by taking his chair out from underneath him when he was standing. I told him repeatedly not to, lest he went mad and told the teacher. That didn't happen, of course, instead, something worse did.
The guy's backbone was severely injured as he'd landed straight on it, and had to be sent to hospital. Now his back is bent, he cannot sit without acute pain... all because of someone who wouldn't listen to me.
Seat belts On
Told my friend to wear his seatbelt. We were both in the back seat. Minutes later we hit a light pole. He flew from the back seat and made a 12in hole in the wind shield. He ended up with 32 stitches on the top of his head.
I won't even put my car in gear until everyone has their seat belts on. Not trying to be found at fault for someone's death because they wanted to be marginally more comfortable.
Not Her
One of my soldiers was dating a chick who had already been engaged to a guy in our company. We knew her backstory and warned him that she was bad news and to stay away.
Three weeks later he came back from Christmas leave married to her.
She cheated on him for a long time, got pregnant from some other guy, the embryo was outside the uterus so she stays married to him for the tricare but lived with the other guy, she had a miscarriage, and finally she convinced him to go AWOL for four days instead of training.
He got moved out of my platoon and kicked out of the army. No idea how he is.
The Parents
Contacting my parents.
I told this person I went no contact with them and I showed them the legal documents saying that my parents are legally not allowed to contact me but they were still like "but they're your paaaaarrrreeeennnnnnts" and got into contact with them.
After about 4 weeks that person called to tell me that my parents won't stop harassing and threatening them for information about me and I need to help them.
I told them tough luck and the only way to get them to stop is get the cops involved and since its just threats, you have to wait until they come to your house and start damaging you or your property for the cops to actually do anything.
I stopped talking to that person for obvious reasons but from what I hear my parents are still threatening and harassing them a year and a half later.
Keep your wealth a secret.....
I tell people this all the freaking time and they never listen: never tell anybody how much money you have. Doesn't matter if you don't have any money cause no reason to let people know you are broke. But ESPECIALLY if you have money, don't let anybody know. It will only cause you problems.
I tell this to my employees all the time. One of my employees had a huge college fund that her grandparents and parents had been saving for for years. I tell her to keep it a secret and never let anybody know about it.
Of course she tells her girlfriend about it. They move across the country together so my employee can go to college. The girlfriend refuses to get a job or pay for anything because she knows about the money. She proceeded to steal as much money as fast as she could and bails.
This is just one example. Keep your wealth a secret. Money brings out the absolute worst in people.
Listen Up....
Nobody listens to me. Ok, I should say sometimes they do, but I swear most of the time they don't. And then it comes back to bite then in the butt.
Told some guy at the horse track that a horse was going to get away from him while he was leading it around. He had him on a super long lead, treating him like a puppy. Sure, you can do that with some there, but this horse wasn't one of them. The horse spooked, kicked him in the gut, took off and ran into a cement barrier, flipping over the top of it. He was banged up some, but he was alright, thankfully. I tried not to laugh at the guy.
Told a different person to not go back on the motocross track when their front tire would randomly lock up (I mean, duh). He did anyway. During the race, it locked up in the air over a decent sized tabletop and he ended up with a broken collarbone, bruised lung, and concussion.
Told my ex that we should strap down the hay. He didn't feel like it, said it would be fine. We get onto the freeway, and sure enough, there goes the hay. Cars are hitting it, running it over, plus losing the cost of it alone was a big enough sting.
And on and on and on....
You're an Adult?
"Hey little bro, please read a room and stop doing your Rick and Morty impression where they make out, complete with tongue slurping and moaning. It's not as funny as you think it is and it makes people uncomfortable. Don't do it at work, for sure."
Two jobs later, he still hasn't learned. Yes, he's an adult.
Up in Flames
I worked for an electrician, doing basic residential type work, and my buddy asked me to look at some electrical problems at his work, since it was on my way home. It was a bar/restaurant that had recently opened after being closed for years. He said one of the waitresses burned herself on one of the outlets in the bar.
The place was huge. It had three electrical panels, and all of them were overstuffed with 'extra' wires, fuses, extension cords, to where you couldn't close the panel doors. I said, "This is a fire hazard, you need to tell the owners to call a licensed electrical contractor immediately". He said the new owners couldn't afford it, but he would tell them. The NEXT NIGHT on my way back from work, the place was engulfed in flames, total loss.
He's so far....
That the people my brother suddenly started dating who demanded he cut every other person he's ever known out of his life were actually a cult and he should run far away. i mean he did move halfway across the world but also he's in a cult.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Oh the 90's. What a decade.
Who knew we were in the time of revolution?!
So much happened, yet so much stayed the same.
And not decades later, so much has changed.
Who doesn't love to look back upon a decade and discuss the things that were a common part of life and are now basically obsolete?
You never know in real time.
Redditor Apart-Scalewanted to reminisce about the glory days.
They asked:
"What was normal in the 1990s but rare or non existent now?"
For me... it's Madonna having a #1 song. It can still happen, but highly unlikely.
Music
"A disc man plugged into a cassette tape with a wire to play music in your car."
freehi_5
Call Me
"Hotlines for the weather report, current time, and movie show times."
redacted_4_security
"The time and temperature phone number for my small hometown still exists to this day. Same Pre recorded voice and everything. It still advertises caller-id as an add on feature for land lines. Know who’s calling you. It’s easy and convenient with caller id. The time is x. Temperature y."
Bushelsoflaughs
Let's Chat
"Talking to your friends mom to see if they were home."
Espeon2022
"I've always thought that having to go through the parents to talk to your friends made things more controlled and respectful. Now kids can just blast each other with every thought that pops in their heads 24/7, that must make things more toxic."
RupFox
Fly Away
"When picking someone up from the airport, you could wait for them at their gate."
Facelesspirit
"When I have flights going through cities with people I know I will intentionally schedule a couple hour layover so I can go hand lunch with them and then just go through security again and board the next flight."
ItsEntsy
I'm Out
"Being unreachable."
BTW_The_Names_Marcus
"I still do this to this day. I'll go on vacation for a week and just turn the phone off, or be far enough out in the boonies that there is no cell signal whatsoever."
libra00
I wish I could put my phone down. Who knew we'd never be without them?
Let's Fandango
"Calling the movie theater or looking in the paper for movie times."
yepitsjen22
Music Library
"Keeping a binder full of CDs in your car."
PMMeUrHopesNDreams
"I once left the door on my car unlocked and came back to find my car stereo gone but not my full 100 disc binder. The stereo had completely died 2 weeks prior and I just hadn't gotten around to swapping it out yet. I just laughed."
v1ct0r326
"My car CDs were stolen in 1998. I’m still pissed."
Whatwhyohhh
Multitasking
"Pressing play and record at the same time."
MoistnSquishy
"I don't know why but this one made me feel the saddest. I guess it just snapped me back to a moment when I was bored and had no where I had to be, no where I planned to go. My life's todo list completely empty. Just me and the weird 90's dust that seemed to float around in front of sunny windows."
bannablecommentary
"Putting tape over the security tab/square so you could record over any tape you had in your collection."
candiebelle
Dial Up
"Telephone booths."
Zen_Anarch
"I had to check for the phone booth that I used the most as a teenager (not in NYC, in the beach town where I spent my summers) and it was still there in the most recent Street View! I'll have to see if it's there now when I go by tomorrow. This was where I checked in with my parents and friends circa 1990 to see what was going on. The arcade was just down the street."
superluke
And the White?
"Yellow Pages."
zekesaltspider
"I got a phone book in my mailbox the other day. First one in years. It was about the size of a Goosebumps book."
dragon_book_hoarder
Well those were the days. Weren't they?
Texas is HUGE!
Literally, it's massive. That might be why the tagline is about everything being big. Oh the metaphors of life.
Next to size is heat. Lord is it hot there.
Those are just a few of the regular Texas deets that often come to mind.
What else do others think of?
Redditor Common-Transition973 wanted to compare notes on everyone's thoughts about the Lonestar state.
They asked:
"Non Texans , what are your thoughts when you hear 'Texas?'"
I've been to Texas once. Austin. It was cute.
Shaped
"Literally just the shape of the state itself as seen from a map or something."
BirbMaster1998
All Love Baby
"I’ve been through Texas a few times and the thing that stood out to me was how much people in Texas love talking about how much they love Texas. I had a beer at the Dallas airport when I was waiting for a friends plane and it was a Budweiser bottle but instead of Budweiser the label said Texas on it."
"Diners would serve Texas shaped pancakes. Every gas station had a section for Texas swag- everything from tee shirts to shot glasses to hats to magnets and other Knick knacks."
"I’ve always found New Yorkers to be obnoxious with how much they talk about how much better they are than everyone else, but Texas is actually on another level. So, I guess when I think of Texas, I think of a bunch of people yelling 'I f**kin' love Texas'."
duh_metrius
BBQ
"Barbecue, don’t get me wrong we’ve got it here in the UK but it’s nothing like what I’ve seen from across the pond. Burnt ends, beef ribs, smoked brisket. I’ve only ever seen it on YouTube and I envy those of you who have tasted it."
LWA7299
"Honestly when I went to Texas and tried the bbq, at both that big well known place and a 'mom and pop' place that my airbnb hosts said was the best in the city. It was... Good. Like it was tasty and all, but just they way people talk about it like its some kind of religious experience or that it's just so different and unlike bbq in other countries, but it wasn't. Its still just meat + dry rub + sauce and I've had comparable bbq in London."
GDPR_Violation
No Skittles
"My Texas is essentially one of those m&m characters. I picture him with those big oval eyes and white limbs. The color of this Texas-shaped m&m is 'American flag.' He’s got a cowboy hat, a piece of wheat sticking out of his mouth, and a perfectly groomed mustache. He’s just walking around in his cowboy boots with his Ak-47 in tow. He vehemently hates the skittles."
comradekitty__
Complete Crazy
"In my native Norwegian the term 'complete Texas' means chaos or out of control."
Algorithmix9
Texas means so much in so many ways.
Perfection
"Cadillacs with giant horns on the front driven by old men in white suits with big white cowboy hats and superbly trimmed mustaches."
Spare-Cap-3152
'gone Texas'
"In my company (in a country on the opposite side of the planet from Texas), 'gone Texas' is a term used to describe a software program that has frozen up to the point where even Task Manager can't abort it. Otherwise we don't think about it very much, except perhaps with mild horror."
NinaCulotta
Taglines
"Heavyset white people with guns and large cowboy hats yelling 'DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!'"
OhEeAyTaleSpin88
"My favorite part of 'Don’t mess with Texas’ is that comes across as this slogan about how tough and bada** Texans are, but in reality it was an effective anti-littering campaign from the department of transportation."
Extremists
"Militant Evangelicals."
skootch_ginalola
"Man, as a Muslim in a secular country, is always a ride seeing posts about republicans go on about something something shariah law, something something freedom, something Obama... And then two posts later, there's a r/nottheonion post about Texas basically being white Taliban."
Deadpotatoz
Well there is still a lot of good in Texas. You just have to dig deep.
Insects play a vital role in Earth's ecosystem.
Without insects, some plants would die and some animals would starve creating a domino effect of global famine.
That being said, June Bugs can crawl back into the pits of Hell from whence they came.
I know I'm not alone in that opinion.
Redditor aconnor105 asked:
"What insect can go straight to Hell?"
Horseflies
"Horseflies. One of those f'kers chased my car for an hour and a half."
- an_ineffable_plan
"Ah yes, the sadistic combination of a mosquito's diet and gluttony and a fly's energy and speed."
- MadQrow
"Their mouthparts are literally two knives with the blades facing outwards, when a horsefly (or deer fly, or moose fly) bites you, they’re literally ripping a hole in your skin and lapping up the blood."
- MacTechG4
"They are such a**holes. A thrown shoe when they land is surprisingly effective at taking them out."
- AcceptablyPotato
"Deploy La Chancla!"
- classicalySarcastic
Bed Bugs
"Bed bugs. If you're anything like me just the mention of them makes your skin crawl."
- My_Space_page
"The bites are bad but the paranoia is worse. Once you get them you will never trust a bed ever again."
"Every unexplained itch will make you think 'F'k, are they back?'."
- pk-starstorm
Mosquitoes
"Mosquitoes. Every single one."
- Fish_Panda
"Only few select, totally expendable species of mosquitoes feed on humans. We need to just completely exterminate those f**kers!"
- vortex1001
"Kill em all, let their mosquito god sort em out."
- Digital_Utopia
June Bugs
Vindicated! I'm not the only one who hates these things.
"June Bugs. I hate them so much. They fly right at you and are so loud! And I get embarrassed for screaming my a** off."
- Skeebou and Cupacakezzz
"1000% this. They make sitting outside in the summer in Texas after 8:00pm (when it’s actually cool enough to sit outside) completely unbearable."
- Rendogala
\u201cDamn June bugs love my pool don\u2019t they \ud83d\ude11\u201d— Stealth wolfsky\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Stealth wolfsky\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1658326332
Cockroaches
"Cockroaches. I want to invent a laser to kill just these f'kers only. They all need to burn to ash."
- AlphaShard
"In South China we had drain cockroaches that would panic when they got caught in flash torrential rain. They make a beeline for the nearest high ground, which includes you."
"I didn't really believe it at first."
"'Hah, that cockroach looks like he's sprinting towards me. Look, he even changed direction with me. Whoa, hold on a minute mate'."
"He got to my upper chest before I managed to throw him off."
"About 2,000 of them panicked after a minor earthquake, flooding out of the drains and into the nearby shops. Yelps and colourful language followed as shop staff pelted them into the air and onto bikes/cars/pedestrians with brooms."
- mrminutehand
Earwigs
"Earwigs. Creepy a** bugs with those big a** pincers on their butt."
"And they always come out at night, get in water glasses, mailboxes...nasty things."
- Xonvoluted
\u201cThe hidden, origami-like wings of the common earwig unfold to ten times their folded size, transforming the mostly ground-dwelling insect into a super-efficient flyer [read more: https://t.co/9vtGk5Hr52] [how they served as models: https://t.co/58nfe8WhYQ]\u201d— Massimo (@Massimo) 1658138400
Fleas
"Fleas. Literally any parasitic insect."
- Recent_View6254
"This is the answer, literally just any parasite. Some actually DO have a reason to exist, but others seem like they were created for the PURPOSE of spreading diseases and pain."
- StreetIndependence62
Borers
"The Emerald Ash Borer. Has killed three massive trees on my property, and is working its way to killing every ash tree in my part of the country."
- CoffeeAndBrass
...but there seem to be a lot more we mostly hate.
Did your insect nemesis make the list?
For the life of me, I can't understand how anyone could still watch The Walking Dead. I just checked and the damn thing has had 11 seasons. 11 seasons!
Can you imagine?
People enjoy watching characters follow a set of train tracks for an entire season I guess. (For context, I made it to the beginning of the seventh season before I threw in the towel, and it was really testing my patience well before then.)
But there's so much more out there that's equally overrated. Television is the least of our problems.
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor PieinHorse asked the online community,
"What is very overrated?"
"The perceived security..."
"The perceived security of most jobs."
chickenkottu
Replace jobs with locks or doors or windows and it's still true.
"Influencers."
"Influencers. I'm not sure what's more ridiculous, the fact someone believes they are an "influencer" or those who actually follow them and are influenced by said influencer."
aussie_shane
I scarcely think about them. Out of sight, out of mind.
"After owning..."
"Designer brands and bags. After owning an item from each brand, it’s really the most big waste of money people can put their money on."
ian6677
You do get what you pay for up to a certain point.
"The extra leg room..."
"First Class Airline tickets!"
"We lucked up on our last flight that we had no choice but to get first class and our company paid for it, but I can 100% say that it was NOT worth the extra $700."
"The extra leg room was nice, as I'm 6'7", but the "free cocktails" and additional food? Nah homie, I'm good."
ecallowsamoht
Was this domestic? For those short flights First Class is pretty much not worth it, but for international long haul? A lie-down bed for a 13 hour flight is worth the 2x or more price, plus the other perks.
"I prefer..."
"Casual sex. I prefer competitive sex."
[deleted]
Evolutionarily speaking, life is about competitive sex...
"Being famous..."
"Being famous must suck big time. Imagine not being able to go shopping, taking a chill walk in the park, go to the beach, supermartket, etc... without people engaging with you."
Pcostix
Say goodbye to any privacy whatsoever. No thank you.
"Spent my prime years..."
"Alcohol. Spent my prime years drinking at college and all that, still say it’s the most overrated thing in history. So many better drugs that could have prevented long and short term health issues, made things more peaceful, more efficient, more successful, and so on. The fact that it’s globally advertised every millisecond proves it’s overrated."
DFHartzell
There's nothing wrong with deciding to stop drinking (or never drinking at all) and people should not be shamed for it.
"Why?"
"Huge weddings. Why? Spend the money on something important or on a trip."
Ginger_Chick
Some people want their best day ever to be a big party with all the people they care about. But there is a crazy level of stress involved in planning a party that size.
"Being an adult."
"Being an adult. What BS is this, and why the hell did we want to be adults when we were kids?"
imunclebubba
Nah, being an adult is awesome. I wouldn't change it for the world. Freedom!
"Half of the time."
"Hot weather. Half of the time it is just horrible and you’re sweating in your clothes and the other half you’re at the beach burning alive."
patrickgall
Sorry, I'd rather it be hot than be freezing, but I'm one of those people who can never get warm.
Hey, it could be worse. We could be talking about how much Game of Thrones disappointed us (again) and how it is impossible to watch it now, a total slog, knowing where it ends up. Disappointing and overrated indeed.
Have some suggestions of your own? Tell us more in the comments below!