People Shared 34 Facts From Their Jobs Everyone Else Should Know, And I Feel Like I Know Everything Now
Recently, I came across a fascinating Reddit thread started by u/ragecage42 that asked, "What fact is common knowledge to people who work in your field, but almost unknown to the rest of the population?" The answers were weirdly eye-opening.
1."The toner in your printer is plastic being melted on to the paper."
2."I work in live chat support. We can see what you type when you are chatting with us before you send it."
3."There is no difference between a violin and a fiddle other than how you play it."
Fox
4."Drowning is silent. I pulled out a kid literally less than a foot away from a large group of adults, and not one of them noticed that his head was totally submerged and that he was struggling."
5."The first thing you do if you think your computer is being hacked is unplug it from the network (or disable the Wi-Fi)."
6."An elevator will go up to the top of the hoist instead of crash to the floor in most catastrophic failures due to the counter weights."
Columbia Pictures
7."It really does help us at the library when you don't re-shelve your own materials. (Not because we don't trust you to know where they're supposed to go, but because if you put it away yourself, we can't keep track of the fact that someone looked at it, which is useful information for us to have.)"
8."There is a surprising amount of infrastructure under your feet. You’d be surprised how much public utility runs underneath private property. Always call before you dig."
9."More people die in lifeboat drills than they do in any other marine incidents."
10."When I worked at Starbucks, not a lot of people understood that a larger espresso drink does not always equal more caffeine. A tall drink has one shot, grande has two, and a venti also has two, unless it’s iced and then it gets a third shot. So many times customers would order a grande latte and say, 'You know what, you’d better make that a venti — I can use the extra caffeine,' when, in fact, the larger size is just more diluted with milk. If you are looking for more caffeine, a drip coffee is going to be the most bang for your buck."
11."If you're putting in new carpet, always go top-shelf with the pad. The increase in cost is negligible and the upgrade to feel, usability, and endurance of the rug on top will be way better dollar-to-value ratio than spending on the carpet itself. Eight-pound memory foam is maybe 2 bucks a yard more than trash apartment-grade stuff, but 10 times better underfoot. Go for the cheapest carpet you can stand (remember, you aren't going to be running your fingers through your house's carpet for more than three days after it's installed), and put the best damn pad money can buy under it. You'll spend less, and it'll feel like you bought $50 a yard carpet."
12."When public play structures are being evaluated, the evaluator brings two size paddles, one which is equal to the average size of a newborn's head, and one that equal to the largest average size of a child under 10. They then stick the paddles in all crevices of the play structure. If the smaller one (the head) can get through, the bigger one (body) must also be able to, otherwise the structure won’t pass inspection."
13."Your eyes and mouth don't stay shut when you're dead. Somebody (me) has to shut them to make a deceased person look more presentable."
14."In scoring for film, the orchestra/ensemble actually plays the music live as the movie is played behind them. It is recorded and synched."
15."Most Swiss cheeses (Gruyère, Emmentaler, Appenzeller) are lactose-free, as well as any cheese that's been aged at least two years, like Parmigiano Reggiano or an aged gouda. I work at a cheese shop, and clients are usually surprised when I share that information with them. I wish more people with lactose intolerance knew about it!"
16."In jewelry, a diamond is a luxury expense, not an investment. Gold is the investment. If you try to sell your engagement ring, you’ll get maybe 20% of what you initially paid for it. Jewelers can get diamonds for a fraction of what you paid for them."
17."You cannot go from having black hair to silver or platinum blonde in one sitting. It takes multiple, and nine times out of 10, your hair is fried beyond repair by the end of it. Kim Kardashian or whoever you pinned on your Pinterest page or Instagram is wearing a wig."
18."Virtually every piece of copper, aluminum, or steel you come across has been chopped to bits, refined, melted down, and used to make whatever object it's a part of. Dozens, if not hundreds of times. Copper pipe? Probably started out as hundreds of different wires from various devices from around the world at one point."
19."Nominal pipe diameters are not indicative of their actual diameter. So a 1" pipe is rarely actually 1" in either outside or inside diameter."
20."There is a period of time every year that in the US, the Department of Transportation pulls over any and every truck that they can. During this period many trucking companies take vacation time, as the potential hassle is not worth the money made during this time."
21."Potential cancer cells develop in the human body every day, and our immune system efficiently kills them without any trouble, and we just go on living our lives like nothing ever happened... Many of the cells the immune system eliminates may not have progressed to the point where they could cause disease, and there are many other mechanisms through which the body curbs cancer development."
22."Touching your fresh tattoo with your unwashed fingers is bad. It's absurd how many times we have to tell this to people."
23."When you delete a file from your hard drive, only the information of how to reach these memory slots coherently is deleted. The raw information remains there until overwritten. That's why companies (should) destroy their disks on decommission instead of just formatting them."
24."If you stick your eardrum with an object, you will start to cough. This happens because the nerves interconnect."
25."Tons of your car's features are directly connected to your windshield. They're also a pretty important safety feature in your vehicle. Unlike your side and rear windows, which are typically tempered glass (also, in part, for safety reasons), windshields are laminated, which is why they crack instead of shattering unless something really drastic happens to it. Also, because it's laminated, it can crack all the way from side to side and you're still safe... For most makes, most of those new safety features like lane departure warning and forward collision alert are on sensors that work through the glass. Rain sensors, condensation sensors (if your AC automatically kicks on), auto dimming mirrors...they all have different brackets and frit cutouts to allow them to work properly."
26."Low-flow toilets often exaggerate minor sewer problems. If solid waste has to get over an obstacle, like a rootball or a belly in the pipe, a low flow toilet won't give it the push it needs, and in the worst case scenario, cause a backup."
27."Truckers leave extra space between themselves and the vehicle in front of them because if they are fully loaded, they need the the extra space to be able to stop without flattening someone. A truck can weigh the same as more than 50 small cars. They don't leave the space out of the goodness of their hearts, for a couple of cars to squeeze themselves into and create a potentially fatal situation."
28."Based on the number of calls I get about this a week, it would have to be that the water company does not provide hot water to your house. I just don't understand how people have never heard of or have seen their hot water heater."
29."Hair is not alive. If your hair is damaged, you can't 'fix' it. No matter what that bottle of conditioner tells you. Products that claim to fix damaged hair just deposit a coating of wax, simethicone, or dimethicone on the hair shaft that makes it look smooth. This build-up will eventually make your hair limp and dull. The best solution to damaged hair is a haircut."
30."Modern cars aren’t made weaker than old cars, or at least not in the way people would expect. A good example of this is if an old car hits a modern car and the modern car is crumpled to fuck and the old car looks like nothing happened. The cars nowadays aren’t ‘weaker’ or ‘made cheaper’; it’s a safety design and the reason this happens is so that if you have a collision, the car's bodywork absorbs the energy of the impact and crumples, while you walk away from the crash relatively unharmed. An old car, on the other hand doesn’t absorb the impact, which means the energy of the impact is felt by everyone inside the car instead, which is extremely dangerous, and depending on the severity of the accident, can badly injure or kill the occupants of the vehicle. Your car isn’t ‘cheaply made’; it’s an intentional safety design by the company that has saved so many people from broken bones, potential paralysis, and death."
31."Depending on the system, EMS providers can do a lot to treat issues. Just because something is serious or even life-threatening doesn't mean we load the patient, fire up the sirens, and zoom to the hospital (with a few exceptions like trauma and stroke). Rest assured, the 10 to 15 minutes we're in the back is being used to treat the problem and (hopefully) have you pretty much fixed by the time you get to the ER. We have a lot of medications and tools to use, and it's safer for everyone to do as much as possible in the driveway or parking lot if we can. Please don't pound on the door yelling that we need to go when we're starting IVs, calculating doses, determining if we need advanced airways, etc."
32."Most people are not good at detecting lies, and consistently score no better than chance (50/50) when tested. The score goes up slightly when it's someone they know that they're talking to, but not much."
DreamWorks
33."How many people actually drive a car before it gets to the dealer...usually five: one to load it on the train, one to unload the train, one at the loading pad, the truck driver who delivers the car, and the guy who drives it to its spot."
34.Finally, "One of my favorite facts about alcohol ads: In the US, nobody is allowed to be shown actually drinking the product. They can only be shown 'enjoying' it in ways that don't involve drinking it – so essentially holding it, pouring it, handing it to a friend, etc."
Dos Equis
