
Sometimes it's just best to keep your mouth shut. However, it's always best to never be cocky or at least to know the difference between confidence and arrogance. We have no idea what secret powers others hold. And even if we are really great at something, it's best to be humble. We can still kick someone's butt in whatever joust is thrown down though, just be nice about it, before you get slammed.
Redditor u/LightPancake914 wanted to know who has accidentally overstepped a few times by asking...
People of Reddit, has someone ever challenged you to something you are an expert at without them knowing? If so, how did it turn out?
Yes.... I enjoyed that day!
"I remember once in high school, there was an assembly in front of the entire school. Can't remember the exact topic, but at one point the teacher pulls up a slide showing the village in Wales with a 58 letter name (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch)."
"Then he points straight at me and says 'can you say that?' obviously thinking whoever he points at is not gunna be able to do it. Little did he know that my dad had been able to say it as one of his party tricks, and had been teaching me for years."
"Yes.... I enjoyed that day!" KormaKameleon88
Fly Away.
"Guy told me all about how airplanes work, which planes are good, which are bad, you name it. Talked for an hour while sitting at the airport"
"I'm an airline pilot." Washout22
The Mario Experts.
"My 9-year-old cousin challenged me to a round of Mario Kart (whatever the latest iteration is, he got it last Christmas). After thoroughly handing his ass to him, I pointed out to him that I've been playing the game since before he was born." stealmyrecords
"My nephew tried this shit. he was doing 50cc races and winning and thought he could take me. the fool! I've been playing Mario kart since the beginning, even before his FATHER was alive!"EricTheRedCanada
Tetris.
"Tetris. A version for Nintendo DS exists where you can link up via download, your cleared lines get sent to the other players screen, so it's a battle. The only other difference is you get a faster drop option."
"Freshman in college, on a trip and my friend was pretty confident (and determined) he could beat me at a game."
"34 undefeated games, just with him, and almost 2 hours determined that was a lie. People started taking turns after he gave up. Still undefeated." NeonNintendo
Checkmate.
"In my first few weeks of this deployment, I was challenged to chess matches pretty frequently, but nobody wants to play me anymore :("
"I grew up playing chess. I've played against my dad a million times and only ever beaten him twice. As of a couple years ago I started teaching my son how to play. As a 2nd grader, he was whooping 4th grader asses at chess. Good times." Judoka229
"Was out at a bar once and a dude challenged me to game off chess. Im by no means professional at it or even good, but I'm good enough to the point where i can beat anyone that doesn't really play chess. In his drunk mind i was a grandmaster." luddoro
Stay Humble.
"Not a challenge, but when I was in 5th grade, I was the fastest kid in school. Our school went from K-8 and every year we had our own track meet and the kids who placed in the top three in each category would represent the school in the countywide track meet. 5th-8th grade competed against each other at our school."
"I won every single race by quite a stretch. I have always been fast and have been challenged to race and won every single time. When I went to the countywide meet, I was pretty brash and even my classmates were talking trash to the other schools."
"I came in 4th in the 100 yd dash, 5th in the 50 yard dash. I learned that day not to be cocky and that I actually needed to train and not rely on talent alone." duckmunch
"As an infantry Marine, especially in weapons platoon, you get really good at spades. And I mean, really good."
"I left the Marine Corps and worked very briefly at a jail where I met another Marine, even better, a mortarman. We never discussed spades, nor played together at any time."
"2 of the old deputies wanted to play one night and said they were the best and no one could beat them. Since most people have never played spades, nor have a lot of people heard of it, they were surprised when me and the other former Marine knew how to play."
Devil Dogs....
"We went over the rules to make sure the different play styles were addressed and then one person decided to bet us. They lost at an overwhelming pace. Where it started to feel bad on how fast and easily we were winning. We didn't even speak to each other, but read each other's mind while playing."
"Man do I miss playing spades with a bunch of war fighting devil dogs everyday." TOWonthewire1
Play Hard.
"I play rugby in a club. Not really a pro but I can pull out a few moves and I definitely know how to tackle someone. A friend of mine challenged me to make him fall on the ground so I did a cathedral (I don't know if it's the right word, English, basically it's when you do a tackle but instead of taking him down to the ground the fastest way possible, you lift him first to make him recoil a bit before putting him on the ground) to him and he never asked me again." dixthemean
StepMania...
"I used to play this game called StepMania (Think Dance Dance Revolution but with keyboard instead of a mat) all the time and was actually really good at it, but only 1 friend of mine knew. Another friend of mine was showing off how "good" he was in this new game he had been playing for a couple of weeks and dared us to beat him."
"I had only dreamt of such a moment before but that moment was finally there after about 10 years and he got absolutely destroyed." bananapiece123
A Bird Duel.
"My girlfriend's sister kind of challenged me to a flipping the bird duel. For some time we flipped each other off unsuspectedly in creative ways. After a while I decided to send her a letter with a card I made. When you opened the card a printed finger unfolded and rose up like a Santa Claus in a christmas card. I didn't sign it or anything. She kept the card and has it to this day. She told me she was really surprised and curious about getting a real letter via traditional mail. According to her boyfriend her reaction was berserk laughter. I won." graablikk
15 Love.
"I got challenged to a tennis match by a house mate during dinner."
"He thought that because I was fat he would beat me easily."
"After some deliberately condescending comments from me he got agitated and we settled on a bet; loser runs home naked (about 2miles through the city)"
"I was indeed fatter than him, my freshman fifteen had become a thirty."
"I also had 12 years of competitive tennis under my belt."
"Nothing spectacular in terms of talent, I had just liked the game a lot, but certainly enough skill to send his skinny butt walking."
"I almost died laughing after the first game already because he was terrible at tennis, wtf was he thinking?" FeverTreat
Olympic Challenge.
"Classmate challenged me to a handstand contest not knowing that i've been a gymnast for 19 years. Got $100 and bragging rights." growingtohatemyself
"Haha I was going to share a similar story. I was in gymnastics for a couple of years when I was a kid so I can still do cartwheels and handstands and I'm also pretty flexible. But now I'm pretty overweight so at a crossfit gym recently the trainer was convinced I couldn't do a simple handstand leaning against the wall and when I told him I could he was like ya okay sure show me. So I cartwheeled over to a wall and did a handstand and held it for at least 30 seconds." its_julz
Not in my House!
"My nephews thought they could bring smash into MY HOUSE?!"
"oh you picked Fox? Uncle you must have never played this before have you hahaha, he's not very good"
"They don't want to play video games with mean uncle anymore after not being allowed to touch the ground." manaworkin
Pok-e Master.
"I did some student teaching in a middle school, and some of my kids challenged me to a Pokémon trivia contest. I wiped the whole entire floor with them. Casuals." SomeGuyInShorts
"Dumb fool middle schoolers. They don't know about the Pokémon masters of the 90s." nzcnzcnz
The Lefty!
"It's pretty well known that I'm good at tenpin bowling. On a work trip recently, my coworkers drunkenly decided to challenge me to a game - 'and to make it fair, you can only bowl with your left hand!'"
"I beat them solidly."
"(Am left handed.)" seven_seacat
Dead or Alive.
"At the end of a party a colleague of mine took out his Xbox and asked with a large grin if we wanted to play the fighting game Dead or Alive."
"I was obsessed with it when I was younger but never told anyone I even play video-game. He didn't took a single round with his best character while I was drunkenly playing random characters."
"I even let someone else that never played the game before win a round to screw off my colleague." Ntghgthdgdcrtdtrk
Speed ice skating!
"Speed ice skating! There was this really douchey guy in our group of friends who felt the need to show me up one night when a bunch of us were skating. I had played hockey growing up, unbeknownst to him, so I agreed to his challenge to race. After I lapped him (a few times) he just started laughing at himself realizing how cocky he had been. Turns out he was actually a really kind and caring guy, just so socially inept that it came across as rude. We became pretty good friends and I remember during a really bad flu i missed a few events and he was the only one who thought to call me up and see how i was doing. He got married recently and I couldn't be happier for him!" JillandherHillsJillandherHills
I destroyed her!!
"When Pokemon ultra sun and moon came out I bought sun, my niece bought moon. I am 32 and have played since I was a little guy, she was a first time player. After a couple months of playing she cockily challenges me to a battle, like constant trash talk... I destroyed her. Like not even close to being close. As the battle ends I look up in triumph and she is crying. Like shaking crying. She throws her DS down and runs off to her room. I felt like the biggest fool in the world." wham-alama-dingdong
"Indeed you do"
"At a social gathering, a guy that claimed to be a "music maven" <his words> talked on and on about J.S. Bach's Symphony No. 9, "Ode to Joy."
"Without mentioning that I taught music history, I simply remarked that Bach was a baroque composer and never wrote any symphonies - that "Ode to Joy" was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, not Bach's."
"He emphatically said, "Well, I know what I know."
"And, as I described here in askreddit some time ago, I simply replied, "Indeed you do," and let it drop." Back2Bach
Raw.
"I mean, I would hope that they know I'm an expert on food, since they came to a nice restaurant where I'm the sous chef."
"But a small portion of the guests refuse to admit that they are wrong. The most memorable story is the rare seabass. This woman insisted that she wanted rare seabass, even after I told her that seabass doesn't have a temperature gradient like steak... it's either cooked or it's sushi."
"She complained that it was raw in the middle. No crap, lady." cscott024
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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