What's something you should have figured out so much sooner than you did?
Let's all embarrass ourselves. Just a little.
I'll go first...
You know the little cap over the deodorant? The plastic thingy? It took me years before I realized I could just twist the product up to make that thing easier to remove rather than fussing at getting a grip on it.
...I spent most of a decade working as an administrative assistant before someone explained to me that the little rectangle thingy on fax machines and copiers, which has a folded down corner and lines on one side, is an indication of which way you're supposed to load the paper in the machine to get it to scan/copy/print correctly.
I'd feel bad about this, except I pointed it out to my boss yesterday, who has graduate degrees from two Ivy League schools and is an officer at one of the largest financial companies in the world.
He thought I was a goddamn genius.
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello
@Aria said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
...I spent most of a decade working as an administrative assistant before someone explained to me that the little rectangle thingy on fax machines and copiers, which has a folded down corner and lines on one side, is an indication of which way you're supposed to load the paper in the machine to get it to scan/copy/print correctly.
I've never worked in any such position, but I had no clue about this either.
I will probably forge about it, since I use those machines rarely, but goddamn if I don't angst over which way to put shit on them. XD
Bananas peel much easier and cleaner if you peel from the butt end instead of the stem end.
@mietze said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
Bananas peel much easier and cleaner if you peel from the butt end instead of the stem end.
Yessssss. So many fewer stringy bits!
The main one, and it's a deep'un, that I took forever to learn is this: Most of the time people don't think about you. If you're not a complete boor, you don't have very much to worry about socially. Whatever you think people are obsessing over or gossiping about you behind your back... they probably aren't.
ETA: This doesn't count for this community. We're vengeful pricks.
He/Him
@mietze said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
Bananas peel much easier and cleaner if you peel from the butt end instead of the stem end.
Witchcraft!
There is an arrow on your fuel gauge that tells you which side of your car the fuel tank is on.
The numbered dial on your toaster is for how many minutes the bread is toasted for, rather than the 'degree of toastiness'
@Jennkryst said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
The numbered dial on your toaster is for how many minutes the bread is toasted for, rather than the 'degree of toastiness'
Holy shit.
@Jennkryst said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
The numbered dial on your toaster is for how many minutes the bread is toasted for, rather than the 'degree of toastiness'
Isn't the greater number of minutes relative to the toastierness of the bread though?
@Lotherio said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
Isn't the greater number of minutes relative to the toastierness of the bread though?
I mean... yes, but minutes are the primary function of the dial, rather than an obscure 'toastiness' meter.
Continuing on... Helicopters do not fly by the blades shoving air down, but rather by the blades pulling the fuselage up (lift is weird, okay?)
The racial slur 'cracker' does not refer to food, but actually implies that you are a 'whip-cracker'.
If you 'core' an onion before chopping it, there are fewer tears to be had! The core is where most of the tear-inducing oils live.
Freezing the onion also helps. Additionally, you can buy bags of pre-chopped onions in the frozen food aisle if you are really adamantly against chopping onions.
Back to the Future 2. Marty travels to the DISTANT FUTURE OF 2015. Michael J Fox plays Marty Junior, as we all know.
What we should have learned sooner was that Marlene McFly, Marty's daughter, is ALSO played by Michael J Fox.
Going back in chrome is hotkeyed to alt+left arrow (PC)/cmd+left arrow (Mac). It used to be backspace, but they removed that one for obvious reasons and I came across the new one accidentally. I love my shortcuts.
@PuppyBreath said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
Going back in chrome is hotkeyed to alt+left arrow (PC)/cmd+left arrow (Mac). It used to be backspace, but they removed that one for obvious reasons and I came across the new one accidentally. I love my shortcuts.
On a similar vein...
Ctrl/cmd+shift+t to re-open a closed tab!
Aluminum foil has push in tabs on the side to keep the roll in place as you use it.
I did not learn the pleasures of Alt-tab until Windows Vista.
2 parts water, 1 part bleach in a spray bottle can be used to kill invasive wasps in a house in about 15 seconds.
Opening a bag of microwave popcorn just a little at first lets you shake out all the unpopped kernels first.
Eating marshmallows helps a sore throat. Tested this. It works.
@Tinuviel said in Things We Should Have Learned Sooner:
The main one, and it's a deep'un, that I took forever to learn is this: Most of the time people don't think about you. If you're not a complete boor, you don't have very much to worry about socially. Whatever you think people are obsessing over or gossiping about you behind your back... they probably aren't.
ETA: This doesn't count for this community. We're vengeful pricks.
I dunno. I've gotten approached several times in the past year by people thinking I have some kind of grudge or antipathy for them and I have no idea what they are talking about. Even the people that I'm like, 'yeah I don't think we work well together and I'm not gonna collab on anything with them in the future' I'm not building creepy shrines of hate to them, and I don't think other people are either. Of the couple dozen 'thanks but no thanks' I've said, only one has stalked my facebook and used a VPN to spam profanity at me so hey, that's hitting at under 5 percent.
Even in this hobby, most people are not at all aware of anything outside their own cage of wants and anxieties and eternal grudges.
What's something you should have figured out so much sooner than you did?
Let's all embarrass ourselves. Just a little.
I'll go first...
You know the little cap over the deodorant? The plastic thingy? It took me years before I realized I could just twist the product up to make that thing easier to remove rather than fussing at getting a grip on it.
