Mental states are fragile. One of the most popular themes of American literature, in fact, is the fragility of man's sanity. H.P. Lovecraft utilized this often in his horror stories, and the death of the "American Dream" and the effect it had on the sanity of its dreamers was a popular theme in Arthur Miller's plays.
Unfortunately watching somebody's mental state deteriorate in real life doesn't carry with it the safety of a Lovecraft novel or a play in a theater. It's real. It's awful.
u/chickenstorm asked:
"[Serious] What's your story of seeing somebody's mental state degrade?"
Here were some of those answers.
Nine Years Alone
Watched my dad join a cult. Get diagnosed with cancer. Get dumped by the cult and die alone. It was horrible, one of his friends used the word "sick" as in "ill" and that really made so many of his choices clear. He was dying, he felt like crap. He didn't want to get medical care. He became mentally unstable and ended up pushing everyone away over 9 years, he got his wish. He died alone.
Quick Chemical Turn Around
I watched a friend get overtaken by his first bipolar episode in about 3 weeks. He started smoking a LOT more than he had before. He was on Snapchat and social media nonstop. He started drinking heavily as well, and barely sleeping. He totaled his Jeep and got a dui. He went to his job and told his boss to f*** off among other things. He was fired.
He started getting angry very easily. During this time I spoke to his mom to let her know what was going on but she was in denial still. The drinking and mania continued for another week. He went golfing with some friends and as they were driving home, he lost it and started ripping his clothes off and tried to jump out of the car. They pulled over and he was screaming for someone to come and kill him. They calmed him down enough to get to the hospital where he stayed for a few days. This all happened in 3 weeks. He's better now which is really good to see.
Intelligent Yet Alone
So I am a nurse in an Assisted Living Facility. Most people there have dementia. Of course I have plenty of stories of sun downers. Or hospice patients. However, this person just stuck with me when I was an aide at a local hospital.
There was a woman who came in to a med-surg unit. She was middle aged, so not old. I don't remember why she was on our unit, but I remember it had something to do with a car accident, but she was so smart. She had two doctorate degrees and enriched many lives at a local college. I just remember being in awe of the conversations I would have with her when I had the time. She was there for a long time. I remember saying goodbye to her at the end of the shift and her commenting that she was going to a rehab facility. A few months go by and she came back. I remember seeing her name and being excited to see her.
When I went to her room she didn't recognize me, which wasn't too odd. Sometimes our regulars didn't recognize me. However, she didnt' even know how to use the remote for the TV. She could still for the most part take care of herself with minimal help, but something was... off. I told the nurse who had taken care of her the previous night about the status condition change, but the nurse didn't do anything. The next times I had her I just watched her decline. Become incontinent, unable to care for herself, mood swings, all of those. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen at that point in ny career. She ended up passing in the hospital. I will never forget the intelligent, strong woman I had met just months ago become almost a shell and non-verbal so quickly. I never saw a visitor there even once.
Lucidity Past
Grandma, she had Alzheimer and dementia, she started losing her memory slowly over time, then one day she fell and broke her hip, being bed ridden accelerated her illnesses and within couple of months she was just laying there and staring at the roof,barely speaking and all she says is none-sense, she doesn't recognize anyone, not even her children. It's like she's not there anymore and all that's left is her body.
The sad part is that she's been like that for years, dead but not really dead, that we can't even mourn her probably because all the sadness and tears were shed while her body still lies on her bed.
Trauma Episodes
A close person to me told that he had what he thought was a mental breakdown at the age of 5 or so. And the reason was intrusive thoughts about death, specifically his own death.
I said "Why would you even be thinking that at that age?" and why would he worry about that because he was still a child and far from death. He just responded with "I don't know. It's like I know how it feels.
It might've been just a one time thing but he had these mental breakdowns sometimes and it was not good. The most recent bad one was when he was 15. He was doing something happy or anything but then he suddenly freezes up then flinches and starts to cry like a child. And he cries for hours and kicks his feet. At this point I was scared because he was inconsolable and don't know what to do.
After a nights sleep, He seems to be fine but he seems to have momentary "aftershocks" and would flinch and start to cry again. He said it takes 2 months to recover from this or be back to his normal happy self but he becomes scared, frantic and sad in these 2 months.
Worse thing is I think he kinda had PTSD from these episodes and if something reminds him of these situation he breaks down again. One specific song was enough to make him have a mental breakdown and it seems he is likely to have these in December or in the night.
He's fine now and has ways to recover from the breakdowns but it seems he is still prone to having these episodes.
Unravel
My fiancé's mom past a few years ago from creutzfeldt-jakob disease (CJD for short). CJD is most commonly called mad cow disease even tho they aren't the same. CJD only happens to humans and Mad cow is bovine. CJD is when these proteins in your brain called prions go crazy and start to fold and basically turns your brain in to Swiss cheese. There is no cure and it is very rare. Only a few hundred cases a year. She was perfectly healthy except for being diabetic but she had zero complications with her diabetes.
Then out of nowhere she started having problems remembering things and then starting having mood swings. She went to the doctor but they couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't until a month or so later that a specialist diagnosed her with CJD. She went from being completely healthy to not being able to move her arms, legs, control voluntary and involuntary functions and then death in 8 months. It was extremely hard on my fiance to see her mom lose everything that made her who she was. Her own mother and father had to see her deteriorate as well. It was just awful for the whole family
No Longer The Person I Fell In Love With
When we came back from my deployment, I literally watched my then-husband become a shell of the person he previously was. Prior to the deployment he was so light, optimistic, and social. He slowly transitioned into a man afraid to leave home and eventually began to use substances and was finally released from duty because of it. We still remain friends after all these years, but he's still only a ghost of the person he was before.
It Kept Going
My grandmother was very ill for many years with almost no immune system. Minor cuts and scrapes would get infected and run rampant. Every now and then the infection would make its way to her brain.
It would usually start slowly and progress to hallucinations. Commonly she would see mice or cockroaches. One time she believed fully that she had hair lice, and would get her husband to check and comb her hair to the point it would start falling out.
Eventually she'd have no idea of the date or even the year, sometimes believing it was as early as the 40's, the same year she was born.
She'd then begin to forget how old people were and at its worse, who they were. All this time she believed she was fine and refused to go the hospital.
Even after all that, the hardest was the vitriolic hateful things she would say to you and everyone else when the ambulances were called because she could barely stay conscious.
These infections happened 4 or 5 times, maybe more. And every time the doctors would tell us that she wouldn't make it, and she did every time.
She passed away in 2017.
Erratic And Dangerous
My group of friends witnessed two friends go through paranoid schizophrenic breakdowns, one after the other, in the space of two years. The second one was my roommate. It happened very suddenly. He just woke up one day and decided that we were all lying to him all the time, and acted with the hostility and contempt that you would expect from someone who thought those things. He did erratic stuff like smashing all his belongings with a baseball bat in the driveway and piling all his socks on the kitchen floor. He eventually went back to his parents' house, which was a relief. From what I have heard, he never really got the help he needed.
No Good Can Come From Bad
Friend fell back into addiction. I thought I felt powerless as I listened to him downplay his use.
I felt even more useless as he started looking off into corners. Then said the voices that he was hearing "weren't from meth, they were from living with [his] parents".
While I was away, my bf went over to him holding a kitchen knife to keep his parents (who were half a world away on vacation) in the basement. He hid in a bench for 6 hours.
Finally, he called the cops on his voices.
Visited him everyday I could in the mental ward. When he got out, he blew up our friendship, went missing, went back into the psych ward. That's the last thing I knew.
The Most Creative Insults People Have Ever Heard
Reddit user No_Throat_1574 asked: 'What is the most creative insult you’ve ever heard?'
When it comes to insults, clever is better.
Anyone can go the obvious route of simply calling out a person's physical appearance or intellectual capacity.
But if you really want to be remembered, you've got to be creative.
The playwright William Shakespeare was fond of clever insults.
And Ballroom culture made reading and shade into artforms.
Reddit user No_Throat_1574 asked:
"What is the most creative insult you’ve ever heard?"
Baked
"An employee of mine told me that I was the raisin in his day's chocolate chip cookie."
- SellingMakesNoSense
Not so artistic
"Your face looks like something I’d draw with my left hand."
- weshric
Talking out your butt
"'They ruined a perfectly good bum when they put teeth in your mouth.' - Billy Connolly."
- That80sguyspimp
"Growing up, my best friends mother used to say 'it’s a shame God put so many teeth in your mouth…ruined a perfectly good a**hole'…"
"Same energy. Shout out Tia 🖤"
- ends_and_odds
We all deserve a break
"You have your entire life to be an idiot. Why not take today off?"
- rip1980
Green with envy
"I envy people who don’t know you."
- StalinsPerfectHair
Right in the childhood
"'You're not being the person Mr. Rogers knew you could be.' Emotional damage"
- couch_hammer
Emotional Damage GIF by Jennifer AccomandoGiphySlow down a bit
"Knowledge has been chasing you, but you have always been faster."
- Bright-Baker8267
Common loot energy
"You look like you drop common loot when defeated."
- GeorgeCauldron7
A bit bland
"I’ve always enjoyed 'If she were a spice, she’d be flour.'"
- Toren8002
No excuses
"I bumped into a homeless guy. I said excuse me."
"He said 'There is no excuse for you!!!'"
"With his leathered vigor, he's probably right."
- LOGOisEGO
Pain in the foot
"One time a third grader who was very annoyed with me told me 'you’re a rock in my shoe' and I’ve never forgotten that"
- madagascarprincess
Reap what you sow
"I hope your day is as lovely as your personality."
- montanagrizfan
"This works as both an insult and a compliment"
- Yezzzzzzzzzzzz
"'If my dog had a face like yours, I’d shave it’s @ss and teach it to walk backwards'"
- WteMxy
boxer dog gifofdogs GIF by Rover.comGiphyI would consult my own
"'If I wanted to hear an a**hole’s opinion, I would have just farted.' Learned this one a month ago and don’t know how I survived 40.5 years without it!!"
- ITSBRITNEYsBrITCHES
I'm not that flexible
"I'm trying to see things from your point of view but my head won't fit up my arse."
- Horrorbmoviepunk
It's generally better to try to play nice with others when you can but, if you're going to be mean, at least get creative.
By the time we are in high school, we tend to try and keep track of our classmates and see what they are up to as we progress in our own lives.
Some of our classmates end up extremely successful, and sometimes, wealthy. Redditors know this all too well. They know how their old classmates became rich and are eager to share.
It all started when Redditor Ivl231889 asked:
"How did that person in your class become rich?"
He Was A Skater Boy
"He dropped out of high school at 15 to be a pro skateboarder. People laughed, he's now worth 50 mil."
"Rick Howard"
"Yeah it's pretty cool, went to school together and a bunch of us started skating around the same time, he just took it to the next level. Thankfully I wasn't of those laughing as I knew he'd make it but damn, numerous businesses and 50 mil later, well done my man."
– tekhed303
A Hell Of A Life
"Started online gambling sites back in the 90s, dropped out of high-school, millionaire by 20 Overdosed by 25."
– waltwalt
"What a life. That 5 year run would have been wild"
– superfresh23
Coders
"Sim for me- my friend wrote code for the online sites that was really good in some way (beats me how I’m no programmer) and they paid him through the nose for it. Next step he modified the code to work for stock market prediction and he runs a hedge fund. Owns like 8 houses in 6 diff countries and his own jet. I’m smart but not in that specific kind of way - I’d be jealous except he was a good nice dude before and remains. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy and it was all through work and smarts"
– Remarkable_Green_566
Bitcoin
"I went to school with a kid that was all in on bitcoin from the get go. He was a hustler out of the womb, and held two jobs along with a couple different side hustles. He didn't have much in the way of a social life, so he invested probably 75% of his income. He was buying bitcoin when it was like $1. He went on to buy a number of gas stations/ convenience stores and apartment buildings. He went from a McDonald's fry cook to buying and selling classic cars as a hobby."
– Waffle_Maestro
"One of my former co-workers did something fairly similar. When he upgraded to new servers (we were self-hosting), he asked our owner if he could use the old ones to mine BTC. The owner said it was fine as long as he took them home to do it. Similarly to the kid in your story, he also spent some of his income buying up BTC (between the years it moved from ~$10 to $200 per coin), and then also was part of some BTC trading thing online."
"Fast forward to 2019, he sells off most of it at $16k per coin. He wouldn't tell our friend group (mostly old colleagues) how much exactly, except to confirm it was more than 1,000 coins. He did pay taxes on all of it... still bought a giant house outside of Boulder and now travels all over and is getting a Ph.D. for fun."
"Obviously he could've held longer, but I think he was just tired of obsessing over its value bouncing all over the place when he already had more than enough to retire comfortably in his mid-thirties."
– asmodeanreborn
"Not my close friend but a kid in my English class, really f**king smart kid. He entered a coding/robotics competition and got third place. He was pretty bummed out for a while. First prize was a scholarship for a pretty big university. And third place got a lousy 500 bitcoin. He kept the 500 bitcoin despite people telling him to cash it and get the $100 or whatever it was worth. Anyway he cashed it at the peak of bitcoin and is now living pretty f**king well with his $30mil."
– Sploshta
He Was The One
"A guy skipped class to MUD enough times that the best high school in the Midwest kicked him out. He rarely showered and smelled like death."
"He went to college at 25 and sold Volcano vaporizers from his dorm room. Over the next decade or so, he built that business into a large head-shop wholesaler. He cashed out eight figures liquid just before the pandemic."
"20% of our class are engineers today; 10% are doctors and 10% are lawyers. Ol' stinky is more successful than any of us."
– mzanon100
The Tech Field
"She started working for a little company called Microsoft in the mid-1980s. She retired at 40."
– dma1965
"My classmate worked at LinkedIn before it got big. Retired at ~30 by pouring everything into buying a house. Helps that he likes eating plain foods (bread, rice, porridge, potatoes, broccoli, carrots) and doesn’t really spend that much money."
"He’s basically been traveling 10/12 months a year since retirement."
– WeeBabySeamus
Stock Guru
"Smart guy. A little socially awkward but was a swimmer and in top classes."
"Went to UCLA, became a doctor (maybe a surgeon). Started to play the stock market for fun. Ran a bulletin board to talk stocks."
"Turns out he had Asperger and was able to read the stock market signs really well."
"Made $300M when the market crashed as he bet against it. Christian Bale played him in the movie about him, the Big Short."
"Mike Burry. Class of 1989. We knew each other. Not friends but acquainted. Couldn’t be happier for the guy. Truly, happy he’s done well. Not seen him since we graduated. If I did I’d totally (and jokingly) ask him for some cash. I’d try to make him laugh. He’d probably still be awkward."
– MW240z
Rich By Accident
"There's a lot of them that became rich. For most of them they graduated as engineers or medical doctors and simply did their jobs and were reward handsomely."
"But that friend became rich through trades. He took his student loan and bought a piece of very inexpensive land just outside of his city limits. Just by an absolute fluke the city announced shortly after that it planned to expand city limits to include his vacant land.... and suddenly it skyrocketed in value. This was at a time before any real internet and before everyone had a cell phone. And there's all these property developers trying to figure out who owns this land so they can buy it."
"Eventually his mom opens his mail and finds a past due property tax notice and an offer for about 20x what he paid for it."
"He took the first offer he got (and regretted it) and went to a bank and directed them to invest entirely in dividend stocks and for the dividends to be deposited directly into his bank account."
"He used that money to stay a student for life and basically never worked a day in his life. There was one point where it got close to him needing to get a job... but then one of the companies announced increasing their dividend."
"I have rich friends, and then there's him... just living off of his wealth. He doesn't have a great life, but he also doesn't work."
– garlicroastedpotato
I Knew Him Before
"I went to school and was friends with the guy who founded Uber. He offered to take my SATs for me for $500 as we looked alike and he is very smart. He was always "that guy.""
– ReflectionsGo2Ways
Don't Judge A Book...
"Big-time stoner who I always thought was a lazy scumbag who would never amount to anything.
He went on to start one of America's most successful marijuana edible companies. Classy billboard ads in multiple cities. My mom bought their CBD gummies for awhile. Every year he donates millions of dollars of his company's profits to bail funds for people of color who've been arrested for marijuana possession.
He is more successful and has done more objective good for the world than I ever have or will. Turns out I was a bitter judgmental loser in high school!"
– UOLATSC
Do With It What You Will
"Guy’s parents told him in middle school, we’re giving you $20k right now and that’s all you’ll get from us. He was told he can use it for college if he pleased or a car when he was old enough to drive. He started studying stocks like a madman, invested most of that money, and now he’s a millionaire."
– maru_badaque
I need to start studying stocks...
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Are we alone as a species in this vast universe?
Could there be life on other planets?
These are questions we've all wondered about.
And truth be told, we probably always will.
Some say they know aliens exist because they've been with them.
They've been taken and interviewed.
Redditor Churbuddahbread wanted to hear from the people who believe they have lived through meeting other life forms, so they asked:
"People of Reddit who have been abducted by aliens. What’s your story?"
I have no alien stories.
Apparently, they don't want me.
I don't want them either.
NO!
alien GIFGiphy"Not sure if this was a dream or not but I remember being in some kind of craft facing towards one of the walls. I felt a presence behind me and was so scared I couldn’t move at all. Then out of nowhere I suddenly felt completely at ease. To my left out of the corner of my eye, I could see a big being that almost looked like a large tardigrade behind some kind of control panel."
"I turned to see another being. (Can’t really remember what this one looked like) but I remember asking if I could ask some questions. I then received a reply which came from within my own head. 'No' And that’s all I remember."
Churbuddahbread
It wasn't there before
"My brother-in-law says he was abducted. Don't know too much except he was out in the woods walking around. He was gone overnight. He never does that without letting somebody know that at least, he's leaving. He was found the next morning completely stunned. On shock. He could barely talk."
"He never really said what happened. He won't talk about it. He said only, that they performed examinations on him. His right foot now has what I can only describe as a birthmark on his right foot. It wasn't there before. That I know!! It wasn't there!! Now he's got a deep purple mark that covers most of his foot.? Wtf??"
Lazy-Lawfulness3472
In the middle of the night...
"They took me in the middle of the night. I was out feeding the cattle under the moonlight and then a big light came over me. The next thing I knew, I was driving down the road talking to what I later realized was my father. Or... the person whose body I am now in’s father. He made a joke about the time being slow and he had seen an episode of XFiles that mentioned that time reverses when aliens abduct so they can drop you off at the same time as they picked you up."
"Except I think they mixed something up because I am not in the same body I left in. I still remember my whole life before but I am 18 years younger in this body so I don't really mind... But a few years after the incident, I went to see if the farm I once lived on was still there, but it took me a while to get there without suspicion. It's gone. Like it never stood. Maybe it was all just a dream."
Biggmamaaa
The sun is up
"One of my old high school friends believes she was abducted when we were in our teens. She said that one evening she was hanging out in bed, drawing in her sketchbook. A pair of lights like headlights on a car caught her eye out the window, but when she looked properly she could see that the lights were higher up above the road than they should have been, and there was no noise."
"The lights continued getting closer to her apartment building and eventually shone right into her window. She blinked, and the next thing she knew, she was lying down in bed under the covers and the sun was coming up."
CosmicJellyroll
Hybrids
"I was genuinely abducted by aliens. I was driving at night on my own down the M62 motorway in the UK around 3 am for a job I was working. The next thing I know, it's 5 am. 2 hours had gone nowhere. I thought I was going or mad at something and when I got home I went to bed."
"Anyways, when in bed I dreamed about what happened and it came back to me. On the alien craft, they put me in a room and I was lying on the floor... Then they put an injection into my arm which was this red, rusty-like liquid. I think this was to monitor me."
"Every few weeks or so I'll wake up in the morning at 5 am and I know I've been back there, but can never remember it. Sometimes I get a feeling that I've been visited or am about to be visited. It's not fun and nobody believes me, but what they're doing is using our genetic makeup to populate other planets with hybrid beings."
iLikeGingerGirlslol
It's always a joke until someone gets abducted by aliens.
Quick as That...
Kate Mckinnon Snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"It went from daylight to dark in a blink, my mom walked by where I should have been if I was asleep, but I wasn't there apparently, and I'll never forget that. Maybe it was aliens, never figured it out. When I was 7 or 8, during the summer, mid-day around noon. I'm home sitting by the door, looking into the lagoon waiting for my mom to come home. I blink and it's now nighttime. Quick as that."
"No fatigue, no sleep, just a blink. Hours have gone by and I'm sitting in the same spot, wide awake, except it's dark out. Just a blink. My mom is in the kitchen making food and playing music. When I go in, she asks where I was. I told her, sitting in front of the door waiting for her to come home."
"She didn't believe me and chalked it up to being a kid's joke, she's been home for hours now and assumed I was at my friend's house a couple of houses over. After that, I had a tiny lump on my right shin under my skin. I could roll it around a little with my fingers. It dissolved after about 2 months. If a BB pellet is 4.6 mm, it was probably like 1.3mm."
BYNCody
Therapy
"I actually had a therapist who treated people for their trauma from alien abductions. I’m not kidding and I’m not suggesting I really believed they were abducted. I’m not sure she even did but she seemed to suggest to me that if they felt traumatized by something that happened to them, she would help them."
Turbulent_End_2211
4
"You know I have been saying this since I was about 4. Somebody took me. I've always pointed to a spot on my calf that I've always thought it was a scar from a foreign insertion. But I have zero recollection of anything. And at 4 I was too young to make it up or even know the word alien. But my mom would always say the same thing no matter what, it's a growing pain. We could have been dying and that was her come back."
AssumptionAdvanced58
A Light Sleeper
"Not my story, but my Father in law swears he was abducted on a camping trip in the Northern Appalachians with about 4 other people. They hiked up near a lake and set up a campsite, and set up camp. He says they all remember swimming, then eating dinner but no one remembers cleaning up camp or going into their tents."
"They woke up about 10 yards away from their original site, in the exact formation that they had set up the camp, but all of the little stuff was in the same spot and there was no fire in the middle of the original area but not in the new one. They pulled out a measuring tape my FIL had in his backpack from work and measured the distance between the stakes of the tent poles and it was the EXACT distance between all of the tent poles from where they originally were and the new area."
"And before anyone says anything, my FIL is a super light sleeper( according to my MIL) and doesn't drink or do drugs, has no history or symptoms of mental illness, and was the first one awake. He still refuses to go hiking on that trail to this day, it's an easy hike so he isn't trying to be lazy and get out of it."
preggomuhegggggo
Fascinations
"I believe I have been abducted multiple times. Probably about once every two or three years since I was eight. I have been examined, but nothing invasive was ever done and the extraterrestrials seemed genuinely curious about humans. More often it is just an interview via telepathy about how I am feeling and how things are going."
"The last abduction was about six months ago. I remember waking up, seeing figures through my bedroom window make their way into my home, never waking my girlfriend or dogs, and leading me out to their craft. One even seemed fascinated with one of my dogs, but I sort of thought how angry and hurt I would be if anything happened to that dog and he backed away."
Termi89
Still Shaken
James Cameron Aliens GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"Not my story, it's my dad's, he gets a little shaky and doesn't like talking about it when it's brought up. When he was about 15 he and his friend did the childhood tradition of camping in the backyard. Everything seemed pretty much normal and they went to bed at around midnight. Shortly after falling asleep, they both woke up in a state of extreme disorientation and mental fog 2.5 miles away from his house in a empty grass field."
"When he checked his watch it was 4 AM with no recollection of what happened those 4 hours. There was no alcohol or drugs involved. He never let me camp in our backyard growing up so I have a slight distaste for our extraterrestrial neighbors."
UrbanDowntown
This is why alien movies still freak me out.
I can't do them, just in case.
Do you have any stories? Let us know in the comments below.
Though we may not like to think about it too much, we can all agree that living is getting more expensive by the week, and it's more important than ever to have a good, stable job.
But there are some jobs out there that have a questionable salary, though not in a bad way.
Redditor FlintTheDad asked:
"What's a job that pays extremely well for no reason?"
Slot Machine Repair
"Repairing slot machines. I'm currently at $32 per hour and the benefits package and vacation time are incredible. Some days are busy, but last year I managed to read a few books on shift."
- Ok-Sign5282
Support for Tech Support
"My job doesn't make six figures, but I'm overly compensated for making sure Tech Support doesn't cuss the customer out and pointing out what they could have done better."
"I'm not even the supervisor, I'm just the judgy f**k sitting in the corner office."
- judasmachine
Questionable Talent
"I worked as a recruiter for Microsoft during the pandemic. There was such a fever pitch for tech talent that we were basically throwing $175,000 checks per year at anyone with a pulse and a GitHub."
"We have a lot of amazing tech talent, but some of the people we hired had no business being there. Like, literally just twiddling their thumbs and handling one or two small kanban-type projects each week while reaping almost $200k a year. All of the big tech firms did."
"If you're wondering why they all laid so many people off, that's a big part of it. New hires now are being offered much smaller paychecks."
- Agatha_Penderghast
Management Consultant
"My job as a 'Management Consultant.'"
"I earn six figures and my only real task is to listen to my boss whine. That's it."
- BadAlphas
The Football Game
"Chase Daniel has been in the NFL for 14 seasons, has thrown 273 passes, started five games, and made 41 million dollars."
"Your answer is third-string quarterback."
- bargman
Mail Delivery
"Mail carrier for Canada Post. I make $230 a day (wages are based on route value) and I was home before 9 AM on Friday. I started at 7 AM."
"Mondays are longer, and Christmas can suck, but for 10 months of the year, I work a max of four hours a day. Unionized. Benefits that are better than Blue Cross and I pay $15 per month for PTO, personal days, etc. It's the best job I've ever had."
- skylla05
Genius Translation
"I once learned of a guy making 300k translating genius talk to others."
"He would talk to the genius engineers. They would tell him their ideas, since they are too socially awkward to do it themselves, and he would explain their idea to the rest of the team."
"That sounded like a great gig."
- SquirrelYogurt
Night Shifts at the Gym
"I get paid just under $80k working nights at a gym. Get all my work done in less than two hours and can basically do whatever for the other six. Watch football. Scroll Reddit. Whatever."
"Not awesome money but excellent for what I do."
- Human_Alternative_
Microphone Performances
"The 'let's get ready to rumble' guy and his brother, the 'it's time' guy, both make millions for holding a mike and saying a few lines."
- YouPeopleMakeNoSense
Birthday Party Clowns
"The average clown salary in the United States is $63,000 per year."
- mimzaroo
Lawn Mowing
"Honestly? Lawn mowing. I make ridiculous money running a landscaping and lawn care business (5%/95%). It’s hard to overestimate how much people will pay to avoid physical labor."
- SlothfulWhiteMag
9-1-1 Operator
"I'm a 911 operator and make $36 an hour with no degree needed."
"I mean, I do have to listen to some pretty f**ked up s**t, but luckily I've been emotionally dead for over a decade now so it works out well for me."
- Razvee
Medical Administration
"Medical administrator. I know a married couple with the same med admin bachelor's degree, and a one a year online master's in medical admin. They walked out of college into six-figure jobs over ten years ago and now make ~$500k each."
"I can't tell if they actually do anything for the hospital. During the pandemic, they took advantage of healthcare loans they didn't have to pay back. They also would post all sorts of (hashtag) front-line healthcare workers' s**t during the pandemic... from their second vacation home because they worked remotely the whole time. Scabs."
- secderpsi
Event Technology
"Event technology. 75,000 dollars per year to set up projectors and microphones. Most of the day consists of waiting to break everything down after the event. Lots of downtime, like a lot. I was able to finish my Associate's degree with all the downtime."
- Rock33A
Optics Retailer
"Optics."
"You can be a normal retail sales associate and sell eyeglasses at LensCrafters and make up to $29.00 plus commission plus paid time off, sick leave, retirement, health and dental insurance, and free annual eyewear with a high school diploma."
- JustSomeApparition
While some of these jobs are likely more work than these Redditors suggested, it's cool to see that there are jobs out there that pay more than the work required, which is a refreshing opposite to the many jobs in the world where people work way too much for far too little money.