Technology has been an incredibly valuable tool in for education. What used to take entire buildings to store can now be kept online. Knowledge can be shared further and faster than we thought possible. With just a few clicks we can tend files and folders with assignments, instructions, videos - you name it!
Of course, new technology means new ways to screw it up and embarrass yourself. Or if you screw it up badly enough embarrass you and everyone around you.
That secondhand embarrassment is the worst.
One reddit user asked:
Teachers of Reddit, when did student send you the wrong file?
So listen, here's the deal... before we dive into this we need to make something very clear. There is as much porn in these responses as you think there is. This is not the article for your kids to read as a cautionary tale now that almost everyone is doing online schooling.
This is, however, the article that you as parents might want to read so you can be reminded to be extra careful about what flash drives you let the kids borrow, who you're firing that text to (make sure it's not your kid's teacher unless you really really mean for it to be) and what pictures you're adding to your kid's Powerpoint presentations.
It' a technological jungle out there, fam.
Professor Snail
I'm a TA and sometimes accept submissions into my email. Someone emailed me a pdf of their hw, but instead of their hw it was a fanfic about the class professor being a snail.
I memorialized their fanfic by later drawing the professor as a snail and:
putting it on the school reddit
putting it on his door
putting it on my instagram
putting it on the board in our major lounge
I like that student. It was a good fanfic that included a section about him walking on salt.
Teenage Thoughts
GiphyI have a relatively harmless but funny reverse example. When I was in high school sometimes I would randomly type up my thoughts about various TV shows while I was watching them. I have absolutely no idea why I did that - I would just type up my stream-of-consciousness thoughts in the bottom of some document.
Apparently one time I did this on the bottom of a draft article for my 9th grade journalism elective, which the teacher projected onto the whiteboard and read aloud to the entire class. I have no idea how I accidentally left it at the bottom of the draft, but it was very awkward. I'm pretty sure I'd written comments about an episode of America's Next Top Model in a random paragraph at the end of my draft.
Luckily the submissions themselves were anonymous so no one knew it was mine, but it was awkward. The teacher was like "...hmm, I guess someone's document got mixed up...I don't think that's part of the article...so...comments?" She then left it up for like 10 minutes. I wanted to die.
A Random Flash Drive
I had given students the simple come up with a commercial project. Students had the option of performing in class or recording a short video.
One student brings in a random flash drive with her project. I plug it into my laptop so we can watch as a class and the thing was full of named porn files. She was in 7th grade and it was all uncomfortable. She told me to just click on the folder with her name and we all pretended like we didn't see anything else.
At Least Plagiarize Correctly.
Had a student complain that their assignment wouldn't upload to google classroom. Turned out that he was trying to turn in work that someone else had done and had just shared with him. He couldn't because he didn't "own" the document.
When Bullying Backfires
When I was in high school, I was working with the art teacher to create a book of art and writing by seniors that would get printed and passed out to them at graduation. Usually files would get sent to me, and I would decide if they had enough effort to go into the book, and then I'd email the file to the teacher.
Our emails were just firstnamelastname123@schoolmail, so everyone knew everyone's email. There was an older student that had been bullying me and being absolutely nasty to me, both in person and via email. When he sent his piece, I didn't pay attention and forwarded the entire chain of emails to the art teacher, including the bullying.
He lost his place on the cross country team and instead of a page for him in the art book, there was a page about bullying and how to reach out for help. So. That's what happened when I sent the wrong file.
Elbow Deep In A Cow
GiphyA student once sent me a video of themselves artificially inseminating a cow.
It was an 'instructional speech' for a class that was not mine.
Screenshot
Actually I am the student and it happened today. Instead of sending my teacher a screenshot of my quiz results I sent her a screenshot of ... a page on how to take a screenshot.
FanFic
I was the student and I will be forever traumatized by my mistake.
I write fanfiction for a relatively niche fandom and wrote a novel-length fic for my OTP. Around the end, I had just shared the link to the Google Doc with my beta reader, and thus, the link was copied to my clipboard. While waiting for her to approve the draft, I went to a class's website to submit an online homework assignment.
Our system allows submissions of Google Docs. I went to the homework assignment, a different Google Doc, and "copied the link" to submit to my professor. And actually pasted the one to this massive, in-depth, 200+ page fanfiction, because the automatic link copying didn't work properly.
The professor emailed me informing me of my mistake, and I had a minor panic attack and apologized profusely before sending her the correct link.
She never mentioned it again, but sometimes I still wonder if she read my fic.
Mum's Funeral
Student, not a teacher, but in my year 9 IST class (Information and Software Technology) we were given an assignment to make a short 8-10 minute movie in premiere. I wasn't going to be in class on the due date because of a funeral, so I emailed the file to my teacher. Turns out I sent the teacher the slideshow movie I'd made for my mum's funeral.
Oopsie.
- sitpinko
Double Whammy
A combination of a student and his mom. And they got me twice.
I taught history and one of my sophomore kids was essentially useless.
His mom did everything for him. Including his assignments. I didn't give homework except for papers, and the final project, which was to make a power point about any year of your choosing.
This kid chose the year he was born. Which is literally the one year I tell them not to do because, being the same age, I didn't want to make the class sit through 15 presentations of the same year. It was obvious his mom had done the PowerPoint because he was genuinely surprised when we got to "August" and it was a close up photo of the mom's vagina giving birth to him.
This was partially on me, because the students were supposed to email me a copy of the slide show so I could review it and I didn't.
I emailed the mother about it and my email included my cell phone number. She called me, completely oblivious that showing the literal moment of her son's birth was not appropriate for history class.
Fast forward to a few days later.
I'm sitting at home and I get a text with a picture from her. She's literally this 40-something Mrs. Weasley looking woman, totally naked. The message said "Can't wait to see you Friday".
I deleted it and willed that from my mind.
POM
We were having presentations on Economic models in our class and this guy came up with a USB. He plugged it in and began opening his file. Just as he opened a folder, there were two files. One was "Economics presentation" and the other one was "POM" (principles of management) but before we could take a good look, the projector crashed and the screen went black. Everyone thought they saw "PORN" instead of POM and the guy looked visually embarrassed. The whole class was laughing and the teacher looked pissed. She thought this was some type of prank.
Anyhow, the IT guy was called and when the screen lit, it turned out to be "POM". The guy kept laughing throughout his presentation.
Turns out, our thinking was corrupt.
Dragonball Z
GiphyIn elementary school, instead of submitting my marble composition notebook with all my grammar lessons, I accidentally handed in my marble composition notebook with all my DragonBall Z doodles. The teacher had no idea what was going on.
Left-Brained
I have so. Many. Dumb. Plagiarism stories. My personal favorite story is when a student submitted an essay from a previous year (through turnitin). When I emailed the student about our zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism and filed a zero in the digital grade book, he immediately emailed me back; "Well, I wrote a new intro so it was only 70% plagiarized. Can't I get a 30%?" Like... our university had a policy you could get a zero for the CLASS for plagiarism and you're asking for a 30% on a paper that really didn't matter? Needless to say, that student DID plagiarize again, and got the department chair involved because I was "Unfairly grading" AND got his MOM involved (the student was a Sophmore so maybe 19?) who told the chair I was "grading based on creativity" and that her son was more "left-brained" and shouldn't be expected to create his own sentences.
Nothing Happened
Had this kid named Andrew (not real name) and he was a little odd. One day at like 8PM he sends 20 or so dick pics to me. The next day he went on like nothing happened
Be More Careful
I have WhatsApp groups with the senior classes I teach. I have had the accidental nudes and things like that. But they delete almost instantly. I delete it from my side as soon as I see it,then I remind them to be careful when sending files and things like that.
- irmai01
Wrong Number
My teacher has been sending me random funny videos via whatsapp for the last few weeks. Think she's got the wrong number....
- Lecer67
Products That Customers Don't Realize Have A Really High Mark Up
Reddit user petrastales asked: 'What product unbeknownst to most people has the highest mark up?'
When I was in high school, my friends and I went to a pizza place after school nearly every day. In addition to a slice of pizza, we would each buy a soda. The place offered free refills (this was back when not all places did this), and we thought it was really cool. However, I used to wonder why they would do this. Wouldn't it be more profitable to them if they forced us to buy a second drink?
Four years later, I began working in a restaurant and learned that more often than not, the cups we gave out for soda cost more than the syrup that went in the drink. The restaurant offered us free food on days we worked, but we couldn't get drinks for free unless we brought our own cups.
This was shocking to me and put free refills into a whole new perspective. We could sell the soda for more than it cost to make, but no one would buy a soda if we tried to sell it for more than the cup cost. It would cost us less to allow customers to refill the same cup for free than it would be to give or even sell them another cup because it would cost the business a lot to replace each cup.
Soda cups aren't the only things that have a high mark up price, and they're not the only products people were surprised to find had a high mark up. Redditors know of lots of products that they were surprised to find out has a high mark up and are ready to share.
It all started when Redditor petrastales asked:
"What product unbeknownst to most people has the highest mark up?"
Equality Doesn't Exist
"Back in the early 2000’s I was managing a restaurant - garlic bread was selling for 3.95 and cost 0.07 to make. Not all food items are equal when it comes to margins!"
– leyland_gaunt
"I came here specifically to mention pizza. The profit margins on pizza are nuts, you have to suck at making it to not stay open."
– DreadedChalupacabra
"Yeah, it drives me nuts when you can request add-ons, but it's like $3 for a few pieces of camembert, or $2 for some chopped tomato, when it probably cost $5 for an entire 1kg bag of tomatoes."
– Writerhowell
How Cheesy
"Yeah and like 1.50 of that pizza was the cheese."
"Cheese is the most expensive part of a pizza assuming youre not doing some weird specialty stuff."
– Doomstik
"Can confirm. Worked at a pizza place. An incompetent employee was supposed to fluff a box of cheese but dropped it on the ground by accident. the owner was there. I swear I saw him shed a tear because that box was $120 of pure uncut shredded mozzarella and that was supposed to become like $1,000 in pizzas."
– PM_Sexy_Catgirls_Meo
That's Nuts!
"Yeah I worked at a place that did charcuterie, I apologized to the chef for munching out on the fancy olives all night. He said he didn't give a damn, as long as it kept my hands off the roasted cashews. Big jar of olives was like 15 bucks, the equivalent of cashews was like 200 bucks."
– hudson27
Bamboozled
"Reminds me of the never-ending pasta at Olive Garden. Pasta is dirt cheap and incredibly filling. The chances of you eating enough that it's actually a good deal for you is very slim."
– IBJON
"When I was working at a chain pizza restaurant, the storage manager wanted to get pasta on the menu, because of the profit margins. It's crazy because it cost us $2.10 to make a 17 inch pizza, and we sold them for $14."
– fukreddit73264
Not Worth It
"Flavored seltzers at a brewery. The beer costs 10x as much to make, but they charge almost the same at the tap."
– LocoCracka
"I have a buddy who made seltzers at a brewery in the Bay Area. Some malt liquor, very little flavoring, and a ton of soda water."
"Couldn’t make a cheaper adult beverage if you tried."
– Ikarus_Zer0
Ma, I Can't See!
"Glasses."
"Luxottica owns most major eye wear stores, costs them a few dollars to make and you pay hundreds for them."
– godnrop
"My cousin taught English in China after college in the early 2000s, apparently they had machines in malls where you could look into a pair of holes, do a vision test, get a prescription, and have a pair of glasses automatically ground for you in like 2 minutes for about $5, and the only reason we don't have that in the US is regulations."
"I travel to China frequently for work. I just take the USA prescription for family and friends and they have them made in about an hour or less. Family and friends give me an idea of frames they like and they pop the prescription lenses in. I pay about USD40 for the top-grade lens material that is antifog and anti-scratch."
– i3f8j
"I don’t really object to paying $50 for an eye exam, I object to paying $300 for a pair of frames. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to take the prescription the optometrist gives you, enter the numbers into the machine, and get the same $5 glasses."
– river4823
Message Received
"Back in the day, text messaging."
– alien109
"That's why I left T-Mobile in 2005. They were charging me for incoming texts but offered no way for me to block them. So basically, someone else had control of my bill."
– CGYOMH
"I remember being young, spending the $20 I worked so hard for so I could get minutes, only for a friend with unlimited minutes to spam me with a few texts and take it all away. What an upsetting time."
– Boopcheese
Ice Ice Baby
"Soft drinks in pubs. Especially the ones from “the tap”. Costs pennies and they charge £3 for a pint of it. Probably the biggest earner in a pub."
– lucky_1979
"Especially when they just cram a glass with ice and then lightly moisten it with the actual drink you ordered."
– jamesmowry
"My work just came out with a policy that we need to completely fill the glass with ice because it "keeps the drink colder for longer".. eyeroll."
– metalbridgebuilder
"The nuts and bolts section at your local big box hardware store is the highest markup isle. 500% or more. If you need more than a few bolts, go shopping at a proper hardware supplier."
– SatanLifeProTips
"Whenever I go through one of these aisles and look at the price for a single bolt or screw, I look at the overall assortment and think: There must be tens of thousands of dollars just for the shelf-price of fasteners I see right here in this aisle alone."
"The markup is crazy, but why do I want to buy a box of 100 screws if I only need two?"
– lemming_follower
Second To One
"The second-cheapest bottle of wine on the menu."
– slocki
"In order to not look cheap, many people will buy the 2nd cheapest item on the menu."
– AprilsMostAmazing
"Wine in restaurants in general. The markup on wine is wild. My boss used to get whatever was “on sale” from the distributor and usually pay $3-4 a bottle and sell it at $10 a glass."
– she_shoots
Pour Some Sugar On Me
"Candy floss / cotton candy. £4.99 for legitimately 10p worth of sugar."
– Tylervdub
"I used to work food service at an amusement park for a summer job."
"A manager told us that the cost of making a bag of cotton candy, including ingredients, labor, etc., was 19 cents...we sold it for $3."
– etm105
Look, Don't Drive
"Those button batteries in store."
"They know you need one asap cause your car won’t unlock so you are stuck."
"Wait 1 day and you can get a dozen from Amazon for same price."
– kindrudekid
Medical Supplies
"As a Diabetic I'm pretty sure it's Insulin."
– PraiseThePun81
"Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this."
"I spend over $13k annually on ‘good’ insurance that doesn’t cover half of the things I need as a diabetic. I spend half that again on the insulin and supplies. It’s a racket."
– Nosce_Temet
H2O
"Water."
– ganic-Lie4759
"Bottled water is so highly marked up as to qualify as a scam."
"At no extra cost aside from the bottle (I don’t have a water meter) my water is completely free. It tastes as good or better than bottled."
– 6033624
I didn't know about any of this!
I can hear my wallet crying.
The Debunked Parenting Myths That People Still Somehow Believe
Some haters will disagree, but parenting is hard. Every parent is going to experience their journey differently from the next parent, and it stands to reason that they're going to make some differing decisions, too.
But some decisions are made based on facts while others are made based on old wives' tales and myths, some of which have long since been debunked.
Because that's how Grandma did it and how Mom did it, some of these myths are trying their best to stand the test of time!
Redditor BITE_AU_CHOCOLAT asked:
"What's a disproven parenting myth that way too many people still believe?"
Allergy Prevention
"To prevent allergies, avoid giving your child these foods until they are much older…"
"It has been proven over and over again that exposing your child to traditionally allergy-prone foods in very small amounts when they are younger drastically reduces allergy potential. Even to the point of doing so in utero."
- UsesCommonSense
Instant Maturity
"Having a kid will cause someone to step up or straighten out or grow up or mature, etc."
- Exploding_Muffin
"I have a family member that tried this. He and his girlfriend were addicts. They specifically decided that they should try to get pregnant as motivation to stop doing drugs. It didn't work."
- HoopOnPoop
Nonverbal, Not Deaf
"That nonverbal kids don’t understand what you say. This one is common in the autism community."
- Kwyjibo68
"I work in dementia care. Lord knows this isn’t the truth for either population."
"A lady I took care of several years ago was thought to be nonverbal and beyond the ability to understand speech. We were changing her one night, and she looked at me and said, 'When does school start back?'"
"Clear as a bell. I was in college at the time."
- bookishkelly1005
No Spoiled Newborns
"You can not spoil a newborn. Their brain is still quite underdeveloped, and actually, by refusing to answer their calls, you can give them self-regulation issues as they develop without that safety in processing new stimuli."
"Edited to Add: I said newborn because I meant newborns. Not babies that need to be practicing lifting their head, etc. There are people who start fussing at parents about this as soon as they bring their newborn home, forgetting that this baby is experiencing everything BRAND NEW, and needs a safety system."
"And also I did raise two humans, and I very much remember being a new mom."
- TinyGreenTurtles
The Power of Multilingualism
"That a child shouldn’t be exposed to a second (or third) language until having mastered their native language. I’ve heard this so many times from people who have no idea about multilingualism."
- lrbdad626
"My sister's first language is English, and her husband's is Spanish. They're both bilingual and speak both languages in their household."
"My sister remembers her daughter noticing when they switched between languages when she was well under a year old. She'd be watching them intently and do a little startle when they switched. Kids' receptive language develops earlier than a lot of people realize."
- dorky2
Dads Are Parents, Too
"Dads are more than babysitters."
"It's been 20+ years since I was a single father, but the attitudes towards men and parenthood haven't changed as much as they should have."
"Don't ask a dad if he is giving mom a break today. Don't assume dad doesn't know how to settle down their child. Don't stare at Dad at the park when Dad is there with his kid(s). And for god's sake, can businesses install a change table in the men's washroom!"
- keiths31
"Oh yeah, this p**ses me off to no end. And no matter how many times we tell the school not to, they will ONLY call my wife if there is some issue during the day. She is 100% unavailable during the day, while I WFH (work from home) and can come deal with anything at a moment's notice."
"Once, my poor kid sat in the infirmary for two hours because they were waiting for mom to return their call. Finally, she herself piped up and said, 'Can you try calling my dad instead?' and I was there five minutes later. You would think they would eventually learn but nope... still happens to this day."
- dcmcderm
Why Is Comfort So Taboo?
"Picking up your baby too much will spoil them. For f**k's sake… pick up a crying child and meet their needs. Sometimes it's just a need for comfort and bonding with their caretaker."
- laurenderson
Disturbing Gender Norms
"Daughters are nightmares and sons are so easy to raise."
"The really disturbing part is women seem to believe this more than men."
- lilymunsterisaqueen
Best Practices, Who?
"That there is anything even remotely approaching a consensus on best practices when it comes to raising a child. I've only been a parent for five months and the sheer volume of confident, authoritative, and completely contradictory advice I've received has been staggering."
"As best as I can tell, just work on keeping them healthy, secure, and loved, and try to muddle your way through as best you can on rest."
- liebkartoffel
Don't Let Regret Run the Show
"I'm an older parent. In my opinion, a lot of who the kids grow up to become is simply them. For the kids who turn out well or don't, people will look back and think, 'If I had only done this more often!' and pass it off as advice."
"Parents shouldn't beat themselves up. Don't traumatize the kids. Don't spoil them. Support them in their interests. Outside of that, just let them become who they will become and enjoy the ride. It's a shorter run than you think at the time."
"At some point, we as a society may find that electronics are bad, something in our food is a problem, lack of interaction is an issue, etc. but as an individual parent, it's really hard to swim against the stream. It's fine to research and take reasonable steps to avoid this but I see too many young parents totally overwhelmed with advice and data."
- fish1900
Breaking the Cycle
"That all parents, specifically mothers, have an instinct that will kick in eventually and your child will be your world."
"Mine told me from a very early age that I wasn't the kid she'd wanted, I was ugly, fat, whatever. I finally ended things completely this year when she told me she's always hated me and never wanted me. I needed the closure."
"She made my life h**l, especially since she had two kids after me that she loves."
"My daughter hasn't ever been shouted at (by that, I mean raising my voice), hurt, or made to feel like less than the wonderful person she is. I suppose I can thank my mother for showing me how not to be."
- earthtomanda
Not the Same AT ALL
"That love, respect, and fear are the same thing. They're f**king not."
- LaliMaia
"'Is it better to be loved or feared?"
"'I want my kids to be afraid of how much they love me.' from Michael Scott's School of Parenting (on 'The Office')."
- Millerisabast**dMan
Not In Debt
"This destructive myth that we are OWED respect and love from our kids. NOPE!"
"They are attached to us, yes, but love and respect are earned. Fear is not respect; guilt is not love; we chose to have kids, they had no say in the matter. It is incumbent upon us to reach them by mirroring the behaviors we value."
- I_wear_foxgloves
"This goes hand in hand with some parents thinking their kids owe them anything in return for meeting their basic needs. You see this especially when children become adults."
"Parents telling their adult children, 'You owe me X because I fed you and gave you a roof over your head.' It’s utter bulls**t. Your child never signed a contract saying that in order to be born, they owe you something in the future."
"Keeping a child safe, providing food and water, a roof over their head, etc… those are basic needs that your child deserves. If you aren’t prepared to provide those things, don’t become a parent. Your kids don’t owe you anything, not as children and not as adults. Respect is earned and not bought. A child’s relationship with their parent(s) is not transactional."
- CatmoCatmo
Public vs. Private
"That you can tell if a stranger is a good parent by how their kid behaves in a random instance you happen to observe."
- JuniorPomegranate9
Resilience as an Excuse
"Kids are resilient and will get over stuff without it correctly being addressed."
"No, we remember everything In our tiny and impressionable brains."
- Pleasant_Tooth_2488
The misconceptions presented here are truly heartbreaking in some cases and mind-boggling in others.
It's hard to unlearn behaviors and what we thought were facts, yes, but if we want to be better people, and better parents, we absolutely have to figure out how to do it.
Homeowners Break Down The Weirdest Things The Previous Owners Left Behind
Buying a home is a daunting task, but it comes with the comfort of finally having a place to call your own after the lengthy process of purchasing.
One of the things new homeowners look forward to is renovating certain areas of their newly acquired domicile.
However, embarking on this next phase of making a home their own can come with some surprises.
For example, doing a gut reno in the basement or tearing down a non-load-bearing wall can unearth unusual relics left from the previous homeowner.
These discoveries can either be treasures, or something very unpleasant.
Curious to hear from new homeonwers, Redditor Oblivious_Dude14 asked:
"People who bought a house. What is the weirdest thing you have found left by the previous owner?"
These will spark curiosity about former occupants.
Hidden Message
"First time I took a hot shower in our new home. The steam covered the mirror, only to reveal the phrase 'HELLO, I SEE YOU' in large finger drawn writing."
"It freaked me out for a second, but made me laugh soon after that."
"It was such an inconspicuous yet obvious thing to leave for the new homeowner (me)."
– Individual-Common-89
A Special Request
"It's not really weird but I think it's kind of a nice story."
"One of the kids' rooms has a shelf going all around the top edge, and when my kid was putting stuff up there they found a letter from the previous kid. The letter welcomed them to the room etc and asked them to take special care of a rose bush in the front yard that was their special rose bush. My kid thought it was really cool to have that connection with the previous kid."
– catsaway9
Instructions
"Not really weird but they left a typed out and printed note about the house and how to take care of it. Detailing all the plant life in the backyard and how to prep for the winter. Described how to take care of the hot tub and gave random tid bits about the electrical."
"They were good people lol."
– pet_zulrah
Theses secret chambers piqued Redditors' curiosity.
Secret Dwelling
"Not my house, but the school my friend worked at."
"A pipe had leaked and ruined a wall in the building, one of the oldest schools in the city. It was a beautiful property. Anyways the pipe leaked so they pulled down the ruined wall and behind the wall found a door."
"A fully furnished apartment was there. Had a coal burning stove to heat it. Early 1900s appliances and decor. It was for the caretaker of the school."
– Used-Stress
Antique Showroom
"My ex-wife's family knocked down a wall in a 400-year-old house in Cornwall, and found a perfectly intact bedroom from the 1800s, still with all the personal effects where they had been left."
"Nobody knows why it was boarded up, or why things weren't taken out of it."
"Oh, and that house always appears in the guides for the most haunted locations in Cornwall, if you believe that kind of stuff."
– ledow
A Medieval Theme
"A basement room that was fully decked out as a 'dungeon.' Faux stone walls, a stocks (like where you lock your head and hands in ala ye olde England), candle scones on the walls, a metal-barred cage in the corner from floor to ceiling. Oh and the closet had a load of toys, some normal, some....not so typical."
– DisIsDaeWae
These Redditors got a glimpse into past lives.
Family Treasure
"Before I met her, my wife got a call from someone she worked with saying they'd just bought an old house and in the city, and in it was a steamer trunk with her family name (not a common one) carved into the woodwork on one end."
"As it turns out, it was the trunk that her great grandfather used when he came over from Germany, and it made the trip to my wife's hometown when he met her great grandmother on a visit, and subsequently moved to her city to marry her. We now have it and it's full of family portraits and albums."
– LateralThinkerer
Vintage Trickster
"My first house purchase in 2005 - bought an old farmhouse that was built in 1923. The basement was FILLED with crap - we told them they needed to clean it all out before closing, but they didn't do it. The realtor asked if we wanted to postpone closing, and we decided no - some of the stuff looked interesting enough. Maybe it will be worthwhile to go through."
"Most of it was just junk. Then, about half way through (we were working our way from one end of the basement to the other, because you could barely walk through), I went to pick up what I thought was a small box, only to quickly realize it weighed at least 75 pounds. Upon further inspection, it wasn't a box, but a wooden square, 4' wide and about 12'x12', with two thin masonite plywood covers on each side. On one edge were two bolts with wires coming off that had been cut."
"Very strange - had no idea what it was, but thought it was interesting. So I put it aside and we kept going. At the very back of the basement once we cleared everything else out, was a rickety gray cabinet, built into the house. Inside, were numerous strange small tools, vials of mercury, vials of a strange powder, and thousands - literally thousands - of dice blanks. Some actual dice, but mostly blanks without the dots. they were all in little boxes labeled 'dice blanks'. Also very strange..."
"Not too long after that, I met a guy and upon learning my address, he said 'can I come over?My best friend grew up in that house'. He came by, and proceeded to tell me stories for an hour and a half about his childhood best friends eccentric father: Someone who was a part of the 'Dixieland Mafia' in the 60s and 70s, and who made a living traveling around the US as a traveling gambler. The enormously heavy box was an electro-magnet. And the dice blanks were for him to make his own loaded dice with a little bit of metal powder under the inlaid dot, so he could set up his own table with the the electromagnet underneath, and turn it on when he wanted to persuade the dice. He told me many other stories, including that there was 'no doubt in his mind that he had killed someone'. Pretty fascinating."
– GIjokinaround
A Soldier's Story
"A diary of an American soldier in WW-II, South Pacific Theater. Found it above a door when remodeling 20+ years ago. My wife and I tried everything we could think of to find a descendant, but to no avail."
"UPDATE: I just posted photos of it with the person's ID info on r/WorldWar2."
"Last Update: Thanks to all the help from this community, and those at r/worldwar2, this diary is now in the hands of its writer's son who came to my office this morning to retrieve it. I am so thrilled to have been able to facilitate this!"
– Factsaretheonlytruth
These folks really hit the jackpot.
Forgotten Stash
"$1200 in cash above the door on the inside the closet. I found it while painting."
– whymetoo
They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
"A glass bowl. It was kind of pretty, with horizontal blue stripes."
"We kept fruit in it. We thought about dropping it off at the local charity shop, but never got around to it."
"Then one day I was at an antique fair and I saw for sale glass bowls that looked almost identical to ours. I went home to get my bowl and brought it to be assessed."
"Turns out it was a vintage Orrefors crystal bowl. The assessor valued it at around $800."
"We no longer keep fruit in it."
– khendron
When my great aunt passed away, our family went over to her and her husband's home in Pomona, CA to clear it out in preparation to sell.
They emigrated from Japan in the late 1930s and brought with them many decorative figurines, sculptures, and wooden carvings from the homeland.
One of the pieces was a kabuki doll on a wooden base. As we were placing the item in a box, a tiny envelope that had been taped underneath the doll's base came loose.
I opened it and found what looked like instructions for something. I kick myself to this day that I didn't keep the letter and never bothered asking my parents what the note said as we were frantically trying to empty the house.
But man, my imagination ran wild. Was it a treasure map? Who knows. I still wonder to this day what the note said and tossing it aside remains one of my life's greatest regrets.
The Best Real-Life Examples Of 'You Can Have A PhD And Still Be An Idiot'
The saying "it's not brain surgery" hasn't meant the same thing to me ever since Ben Carson took his place on the national stage.
The saying "it's not rocket science" doesn't hit the same with me ever since one of my life-long friends became a rocket scientist.
I don't know Ben Carson—just his many public blunders—but in the case of my friend, he's an absolutely brilliant guy.
However I often wonder how my friend managed to survive this long and apparently this isn't an unusual phenomenon.
But more about my friend later at the end of this article.
Reddit user mariababexoxo asked:
"'Never confuse education with intelligence; you can have a PhD and still be an idiot,' stated Richard Feynman. What are some real-life examples of this?"
Chemical Engineer
"I had an intern with a PhD once. She was trying to be a chemical process engineer. VERY book smart."
"I spent the Summer teaching her how to use basic tools like screwdrivers and wrenches for simple tasks like opening containers and adjusting clamps. She had zero practical skills and couldn’t figure anything whatsoever out on her own."
"She’d get lost in a building and call me and I’d tell her to find the exit, but she’d get lost inside and we’d have to go in and get her. This routinely happened, and she would just find somewhere random and sit until we collected her."
"When her car’s GPS lost signal once she didn’t know what to do so she stopped in the middle of the road and texted me where she was and that there was something wrong with her car and to come help. I figured there was a breakdown or something based on the text and drove out to check on it because she wasn’t responding."
Giphy"She was crying sitting on the side of the road and a cop was yelling at her to move her car which was still in the lane."
"If you told her to pick something up from a store she’d ask where it was and if you didn’t know, she would never find it "She refused to ask an employee because she knew they weren’t as smart as she was."
"She’d just walk in random directions looking for things. For example if you said 'go to Walmart and find some work boots because you lost yours' she would send me pictures of random aisles in Walmart with 'is this close? which way from here?'.”
"Book smart but utterly dim."
~ captainofpizza
It's The Milk That Makes Them Healthy
"My wife once had a roommate who was working on her PhD."
"At one point she went on an Oreo diet because they're vegan."
"She was later surprised to find her health wasn't improving."
~ educational_palmeira
GiphySquirrel!
"I am a graduate student at the University of Oxford."
"I recently had to explain to another grad student the concept of animals hibernating. She's British and English is her first language, so it wasn't a vocabulary issue. She just didn't know that animals did that."
"When I explained it she said 'Oh! like squirrels!' Squirrels actually don't hibernate, but I just nodded."
~ slider501
Have You Tried Turning It Off...
"Ask literally anyone who's ever worked for a university's IT department. I've never met a group of people more unwilling to learn anything new—outside of their small specialization—than university professors."
"These people would rather argue with you for 10 minutes that 'I did restart my computer' than just spend the 2 minutes to restart the computer when the logistics software is showing the machine with a 45 day uptime and all of us can see that sh*t."
"Department heads do this."
~ Mammoth_Clue_5871
GiphyIt's One Banana, Michael
"My roommate in college was/is an academic genius, 35 ACT in med school right now."
"I brought him to Walmart with me because he wanted to buy an 8-pack of Gatorade. At the self checkout he scanned one, saw the price was 7 bucks, and decided that must have been the price for EACH Gatorade."
"He ended up scanning the pack 7 more times and paid 56 bucks for some Gatorade, all while thinking that was a fair price."
~ Royal-Character-2035
And Vampirism!
"The nurse I used to work with during the pandemic was constantly bragging about how rich and important and highly educated she was.
"Only for her to suggest to our director of nursing that the kitchen start putting extra garlic in everyone's meals because garlic cures COVID."
~ GlassPeepo
GiphyHistory ≠ Geography
"I know someone with a PhD in History who went to the Caribbean with only long trousers and jumpers/sweaters to wear."
"He was so hot he had to cut his jeans down to shorts."
"Then, as part of the same trip, he went to Washington DC, and had to wear jean shorts the whole time because he cut up all his trousers."
~ RexEverything_
And On The 7th Day...
"I met a PhD molecular biologist who was an evolution denier. I found out years later that he was somewhat infamous."
~ whittlingcanbefatal
"I’ve met two PhD students who worked on bacterial evolution and one who worked in biochemistry."
"All three believed that human evolution was not a thing, all three were religious."
~ D-g-tal-s_purpurea
GiphyNobel Disease
"There are a ton of laureates that go conspiratorial batsh*t later in life."
~ hacktheself
"Kary Mullis is the worst one and he really emboldens other conspiracy theorists."
"He won the Nobel prize for helping invent the PCR test... then he denied AIDS existed while in a government position leading to 330,000 deaths and said climate change wasn't real because his astrologer told him so."
"Oh, and ghosts."
"Anti-vaxxers love him."
~ AstonVanilla
Members Around The World
"Heard about a mechanical engineer who is a flat earther."
"So yeah, him, or any engineer, physicist, or astronomer that believes in that."
"The fact that a single one can get their degree and then turn around years later and believe in something fundamentally incompatible with the BASIC physics required to make sense of their degree is baffling."
~ QuanticWizard
GiphyWhat Did They Do With The Couch?
"Helped some mates move house. One was a Uni Student doing a double degree in Computer Science and something else very challenging."
"While we were packing boxes he asked if he could could borrow a saw. When I asked why, it was so he could shorten the legs on the dining table so it would fit out the door."
"The look on his face when I grabbed one of the legs and started unscrewing it was priceless. As was the look when I asked him how he thought they got it in the room in the first place."
~ cruiserman_80
New-Fangled Gadgets
"In my old university in Germany in the early 2000s. The university was old, really old."
"And when I started they just began modernising the lecture halls etc... The German department got a new, fancy, state of the art lecture hall with any kind of technology you could wish for."
"The professors got extensive training on how to use it."
"There were some of them who after three months still didn’t know how to switch on the lights. Don’t even talk about the microphone or how to open and close the blinds on the skylight."
They didn’t originally plan on having an old-fashioned overhead projector there, but after a few weeks they relented and provided one because the professors didn’t know any other way."
"In their defence, the other lecture halls were so old that they still had the hole for the ink well in the tables."
~ moosmutzel81
GiphyDo No Harm
"I work in mental health and have known sooo many healthcare professionals with advanced degrees who I wouldn’t trust to take care of a goldfish and can’t believe counsel people on a regular basis."
~ DeadSharkEyes
What's That Burning Smell?
"My MIT PhD. friend complained his dryer was taking forever to dry his clothes."
"I asked him if he was cleaning the lint trap—'it doesn't have one'."
"Spoiler alert: it did have one, way in the back and I took out a sweater's worth of lint."
~ arbiterror
GiphyIt's Not Rocket Science...
I chuckle whenever someone uses this saying to indicate something isn't complex like rocket science ever since my friend became an aeronautical engineer.
Why?
Well, we'd have to go back to the mid-1980s when we were both teenagers in high school. As many teens with cars in rural America did, my friends liked to drive around on the back roads as a form of entertainment.
One sunny, Summer day two of my friends came to visit me with a tale to tell.
It seems they were driving on a stretch of road with a speed limit of 35mph [56kph] because of a cluster of homes and farms. When the car slowed to this speed, Mr. Future Rocket Scientist looked down at the pavement passing by below his window on the passenger side.
Upon studying the passing blacktop for several moments, he came to the conclusion he could easily run as fast as the car was moving, so...
...he undid his seatbelt, opened the car door and STEPPED OUT of the moving car.
According to the driver, one moment our friend was sitting next to him and the next he was gone. Or mostly gone.
After a brief moment of panic during which he slowed then stopped the car, he noticed Mr. Future Rocket Scientist's right hand gripping the door's armrest and his left hand gripping the side of the passenger seat.
He was probably only dragged for a few seconds which wasn't long enough to do more than scuff up his jeans, jean jacket and the toes of his shoes.
He escaped with only minor road rash and a few bruises.
After the driver told me what happened from his perspective, Mr. Future Rocket Scientist interjected:
"It worked!"
"I was doing really well until I tripped over that rock."
Luckily an understanding of things like velocity, speed, trajectory, friction, drag, inertia and gravity aren't needed for aeronautics.
GiphyNeedless to say, we've never let him forget his "experiment."
He still claims the only problem was that rock on the road.
And I now use the saying "it's not rocket surgery" instead of either of the original sayings.