Today's burning question comes from Redditor Nerdikki, who asked the online community the following question: "What is a genuine 'We don't want you to know this one, simple trick" from your profession?"
It turns out there are quite a few, and people are more than willing to share them if you ask nicely enough.
"A pepperoni with added pepperoni..."
Worked for pizza hut for 2 years.
Pepperoni pizza was $5. Double pepperoni was $8. A pepperoni with added pepperoni was $7, which was the exact same thing as a double pepperoni. Only one customer I served had figured that out.
"It is very common..."
Auto Parts: It is very common for the exact same part that was made to the same specifications, by the same people, in the same factory, at the same time, to be put in two different boxes and sold at two different prices. You think with the more expensive brand that you're paying for higher quality, but very often it is just the [NAME BRAND] part in box with a [VALUE BRAND] label on it. The tricky part is knowing when that is the case and when it is not.
"If debt collectors are calling you..."
If debt collectors are calling you, tell them you want proof of the debt and you want all future communication in writing, no phone calls.
If it's a legit debt you will still owe the money, but they will contact you by mail and stop calling you. If they keep calling you after you tell them to stop, they might be breaking state or federal law, or both, and you should report them to the FTC and your state attorney general.
If they can't demonstrate that the debt is legit, and they're smart, they'll stop trying to collect it.
"Nanny here."
Nanny here. The one secret that results in sleep trained babies and well behaved children: consistency. If you need a child to change their way of doing things, then you must not give up on it or them. (Well, in 99.99999% of cases)
"We don't have this book?"
Interlibrary loan. We don't have this book? I bet SOME library around the world does. They'll ship it to us and you can have it. free of charge.
"Bakeries often throw..."
Giphy
Bakeries often throw all their baked goods away at the end of the day. If you come in to my shop and you nicely ask if you can take some stuff home, I'll happily give it to you rather than throw away perfectly good food.
"I work in tourism."
I work in tourism. "Packages" that bundle tours and hotels and flights into one price for a "great deal" are usually more expensive than just booking the individual components separately.
"If you dropped..."
If you dropped your consumer electronic and its not obvious but also not working, dont tell the tech support you dropped it, just say it just happened.
Everyone of us rather RMA it for you, but once you say its your fault you tied our hands. You might need to perform troubleshooting you know to be fruitless, but just do it or make a reasonable impression that you did so we can move along to your rma.
"Not my industry but..."
Not my industry but about 40% of Americans have taxes simple enough that the government has all the information needed to determine what they owe. The government could recalculate your taxes, send it to you and then have you confirm or correct it. But they don't do that because the tax prep industry lobbies hard against it. Anything that makes taxes easier hurts them.
"I used to teach..."
I used to teach programming.
Are you trying to learn to code, and getting stuck? You do not need special coaching or mentoring. You do not need a boot camp. Most probably, you need to try something and be okay with it failing.
Fire up Python, type some random bullshit in, press enter, and get an error message.
Notice that your computer has not exploded.
Notice that things are okay.
No, you do not yet have a $300k job at Google. That's fine.
Most of the way that people fail to learn to code is not that they can't understand GraphQL, or MapReduce, or Deep Learning, or the Paxos consensus algorithm, or quicksort. It's that they get scared and confused.
The best mentor is not one who you're paying a bunch of money to explain your code to you. The best mentor is one who helps you get comfortable trying things, failing, and trying more things.
Real programmers spend a lot of time staring at weird error messages.
"You can fit..."
You can fit nearly any fancy new lock you see at the shop yourself. They're not particularly complicated to fit and usually come with very good instructions if not a YouTube video. Half my job as a locksmith was fitting deadbolts. Seriously, it's not that hard.
Also a hint, locks don't stop a determined intruder, get a security system. Again, do it yourself. Security companies charge a fortune for their systems that are usually no better than the ones in the shop. The only advantage to a security company is that they will monitor your alarms, but really, if you rig it up to call you then you are your own security company.
"Your Android phone..."
Giphy
Your Android phone keeps its 4G antenna on, even if you're connected to WiFi. This is to keep an active network connection so that, when you leave your WiFi, the 4G connection is already active and you keep browsing seamlessly. Problem is, keeping the antenna on drains battery.
Go to Phone Settings - About Phone - Software Information. Tap on the Build Number 7-8 times, until Developer Mode is unlocked. Go to the newly unlocked Developer Options below About Phone, and deselect Mobile Data Always Active. You've just increased your battery life.
"Accountant here..."
Accountant here. If you're reconciling a bank account and the balance in your ledger doesn't match what it's supposed to, multiply the difference by 9 and divide the difference by 9. If either one of these results is a whole number, you've got a transposition error somewhere.
"We rotate beer..."
We rotate beer in the cooler so the ones in front are about a week from expiration. If the cooler empties we will fill from displays before we take the freshest beer from the back warehouse to rebuild said displays
"If you are on certain programs..."
If you are on certain programs, you are ineligible if you have a car. If that car has been up on blocks for six months because you don't have the money to repair it, you still have a car and do not qualify.
Insurance is evil.
"If you're using..."
If you're using an Android phone and it "gets a virus" because you're "seeing popups" or whatever, 99 times out of 100 it's because you downloaded some crappy application. Delete it. No more popups.
Also you can get a perfectly good new smartphone for a little over $200 these days if you don't care about bells and whistles. The $1000 phones are $1000 because they come with all sorts of features most people don't use.
"I'm a real estate agent..."
I'm a real estate agent in WA. Don't buy houses in February. That's the hardest time to buy a house and often the most expensive. But, you should buy in the winter because sellers just want money in most cases.
"If a computer..."
If a computer, radio, etc isn't working, the majority of tech support is turning it off and back on again, checking the physical connections, downloading the newest version of what's not working, and looking for patches. There's very little hardware/software reworking, unless it's a very unique, very expensive system.
"If someone is registered..."
If someone is registered with a professional monitoring body who is responsible for the checking of someone's qualifications prior to registration, and that person loses their degree/higher qualification certificates, you can accept the proof of their registration with the professional body as verification of their qualification certificate.
EG if a doctor is registered with the general medical council and has lost their degree certificate (it happens) you can accept their GMC certificate of registration or GMC proof of entry as proof that the doctor's qualifications have been validated.
Might be boring to some but it's helpful to me!
"If you read a news article..."
If you read a news article with no named sources, 99% of the time its bullshit. The article needs a "voice" and tone so, journos with no integrity simply invent one. Your A list celebs who won't go anywhere without security and who live in gated estates are not blabbing their love life secrets to "a pal" who immediately runs to the media to let a trash tabloid know everything. The journo simply needs to fill space and paint a picture.
The exception is when the source actually asks to be anonymous. Usually this will be stated somewhere in the article that they didn't wish to be named/names have been changed. Or if the story is about something/someone extremely sensitive or dangerous.
"A pal close to her" is not out here blabbing about Jennifer Aniston. The publication is simply lying to you. Stop buying into media manipulation.
DQ: What's your company secret?
