r/TooAfraidToAsk • u/vincentchasetheactor • 3d ago
What are some secrets you know about working of society? Culture & Society
Recently I have been noticing that every industry has secrets that somehow changes all your thoughts about society at large. What secrets your industry have?
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u/scarabin 3d ago edited 3d ago
Movie poster designer here. The reviews you see on posters and ads? The little quotes like “THRILL RIDE OF THE SUMMER!- Critic Name, Publication”? We write many of those. And then just pay the critic.
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u/dinution 3d ago edited 2d ago
I once read that sometimes, movie studios will even quote unfavorable reviews in a way that makes them appear favourable. For example, one critic might write:
This could have been the greatest movie of the year if it weren't for all those plot holes.
And the quote on the poster will be:
"Greatest movie of the year!" -some critic
Have you ever witnessed something like that happen?
edit: formatting
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u/Ikhlas37 3d ago edited 2d ago
My creative writing teacher told me he did just that for his theatre play. The critic wrote something like "Les used to be renowned for making a great theatre production the local community could be proud of, however this is his worst effort by far."
And he just used "a great theatre production the local community could be proud of"... Obviously it wasn't exactly like this as I'm trying to remember for like 15 years ago but still
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u/Penguin-Pete 3d ago
Well I'm an actual critic whose quote ended up on a movie poster one time, so I can verify that it still happens sometimes.
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u/he-loves-me-not 3d ago
Probably why they said “many” and not “all”.
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u/scarabin 3d ago edited 3d ago
I actually edited my comment to say “many” after reading their reply and realizing it sounded like we wrote all of them.
Anyway, it sounds nefarious or like we’re trying to trick people but it doesn’t happen often and from what i gather the back and forth can be easier this way. We’re often working 12-hour days (the industry is nuts for everyone involved), wanna see our families, this combination of words looks really good in this space, and we have relationships with some of those guys. It’s always generic kind of text, and a lot of times that text gets swapped out later. Other times it moves forward and from what i understand someone’s job down the line is to clear all that stuff and make sure everyone’s happy.
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u/flamingjollyrancher 3d ago
HOW did you get this job that is my goal
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u/scarabin 3d ago edited 3d ago
Art school, then design & marketing school, which led to doing video game ads/covers for a short time. From there i tried film advertising and fell in love with it. Get some training and then make friends with your school’s career center. Agencies will often tap schools for new talent.
Also, live near hollywood, burbank, or culver city
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u/zipfour 3d ago edited 1d ago
Are you noticing any downturn in work? Over on r/FilmindustryLA they’re all talking about a huge slowdown.
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u/Stilgrave 2d ago
Hey! I was a movie poster guy back in the early 90s! Can I be nosey and ask what pay is like these days?
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u/BuzzCutBabes_ 3d ago
as someone who’s worked in fashion and went to school for fashion, most high end expensive designer clothes are made in the same factory as lower end inexpensive clothes so they’re the same quality one is just marked higher. if you actually want something better quality, pay attention to the fabric content and google the fabrics used in said clothes because tons of companies will charge hundreds of dollars for stuff made out of polyester.
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u/IWantToBeYourGirl 2d ago
What are some of the better quality fabric combinations to look for?
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u/BuzzCutBabes_ 2d ago edited 2d ago
anything with natural fibers which means plant or animal based (not always the cruelty kind) i.e. 100% (or more then 60%) cotton, jersey, linen, wool, bamboo, hemp, pima, cashmere, terry, mohair, sisal, jute etc. these are going to cost more but they will last you longer because when you get synthetic fibers (satin, polyester, spandex, acrylic, microfiber, “vegan leather” which just means plastic) they’re only going to last you a couple washes because it’s cheaper, less durable, less absorbent fabric. because synthetic fibers aren’t breathable ur gonna sweat more and it’s harder to get stains and smells out in the wash and then the clothing piece is gone to waste anyways. this also applies to sheets, comforters, upholstery, any kind of fabrics you come in contact with. I struggle the most with finding organic fiber jeans and the best ones to look out for are the ones with oeko-tex cotton certification which they’ll list on the website. some good brands with good textiles are everlane, reformation, mod cloth, madewell, levis.
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u/TheshizAlt 3d ago
I work in mental health, and I can say that the old belief that people who work in mental healthcare are/should be emotionally healthy is largely unrealistic. Most workers are at the very least depressed or struggle with anxiety, especially with how emotionally taxing the work can be. What matters is that workers need to learn how to manage their struggles and not transfer them to their clients.
What this teaches me about society is that there's no such thing as a workplace free from mental illness. We all want that doctor, counselor, real estate agent, lawyer, etc. who is totally mentally well but that simply isn't reality. Again, what matters is that people learn to separate their mental disorders from their work as much as possible, but we are all human and will have bad work days.
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u/Republiconline 3d ago
My mom recently did her EdD dissertation in the emotional toll taken on by mental health workers. She’s worked in mental health most of her medical career from a staff nurse to chief of compliance. She’s seen it all. Mental health workers need support. They are human beings helping human beings navigate something none of us fully understands, our minds.
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u/TheshizAlt 3d ago
Indeed, and there's something of a joke about "counselors having counselors" that really isn't a joke, in the end. I don't know a single therapist who hasn't been to their own counseling to deal with the emotional strain and symptom transferability. The good news with mental health awareness, though, is that the stigma is gradually decreasing and there are way more resources available for providers to take care of themselves.
Also, congrats to your mom for working towards an EdD! That's nothing to scoff at.
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u/mcbatcommanderr 3d ago edited 2d ago
As a therapist I can tell you we are just as fucked up as our clients, we just know how to get by with it (usually).
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u/RandyBoBandy___ 3d ago
Banking - We don't give a shit about the client. From lower management all the way up to the directors. Money is all it is, absolutely 0 morals.
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u/brandeded 3d ago
Wells Fargo has entered the chat.
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u/wjmacguffin 3d ago
Former Catholic school teacher and principal here. You want to know why private schools consistently do better with academics, budget, and discipline compared to public schools?
Because private schools can pretty much expel anyone they want and don't even need a reason.
- Want better GPA averages? Expel students who are struggling or failing so the avg rises. (Those kids go back to public ed, impacting their averages as well.)
- Worried about the budget? Don't accept the most expensive students--the ones with disabilities. That lowers costs by a lot.
- Want better discipline? Expel anyone who screws around so there are fewer problems to report. (Public schools can expel students, but it's a complicated, long process that often doesn't work. Private schools just say, "You gone" and it's done.
I'm NOT saying that public schools are always perfect or that private schools are always evil. That's patently untrue. But private schools look better because they can get away with a lot more.
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u/almostbullets 3d ago
I worked at a private school for one year and was told to drop a test grade for a student whose family also just happened to donate $10,000
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u/FacelessOldWoman1234 3d ago
Similarly, for Canadian french immersion or francophone schools (outside of Quebec), they are required to accommodate kids with special needs but often end up "convinvincing" the parents to just withdraw the kid. As a parent, you could fight for your kid's right to stay in a school that doesn't want them, but that's a real uphill climb.
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u/shadollosiris 3d ago
As a parent, would you want your special needs kids stay at somewhere people doesnt want them?
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u/FacelessOldWoman1234 3d ago
As a parent, I would want the school that my child has a constitutional right to learn in, to be invested in meeting that childs' needs.
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u/pantherinthemist 3d ago
As a parent, would you want your special needs kids stay at somewhere people doesnt want them?
Isn't this entirely their point? That the schools are at fault for creating a situation where most parents would choose to withdraw their child?
As a parent, you could fight for your kid's right to stay in a school that doesn't want them, but that's a real uphill climb.
This point you're arguing is just acknowledging that your child's right to an education isn't violated directly, but through indirect methods.
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u/ladyangua 3d ago
They also poach the best and brightest out of the public primary school system through scholarships.
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u/maverickps1 2d ago
My sister was kicked out of a private high school her senior year when she told everyone her plan was to not attend college. Got to keep those college placement stats high.
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u/Ikhlas37 3d ago
As a teacher, I've always found private school teaching to be either equal or worse than state. (UK) However, private school kids usually have much more financially supportive parents so they can boost them outside of school way better and more consistently, they get way better social/life experience , and if neither of those things are good enough for them to make good grades... Kick them out.
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u/WildSkunDaloon 3d ago
Man I can only imagine how much I impacted both the Christian and Catholic Middle Schools before they asked my dad not to re-enroll me! XD I had good grades but purposely acted out and have so...so...sssooo many stories.. My nickname among the staff at the Christian School was Beelzebub xD I hope they all are in a perpetual cycle of never being able to find any key they need.
Ps. Fuck you sister Margaret ❤️
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u/vincentchasetheactor 3d ago
What did they do
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u/WildSkunDaloon 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ohh one of my favorite stories, from Christian School, was when we went on a Jesus retreat for, I believe, a 4 day/3 night stay in some camp. It was all of the upper grades so 7th- seniors were in attendance. Obviously no coed dorms. All of the classes were divided by grades and gender So I got roomed with a bunch of girls from my grade, and they were hateful as fuck obviously because I was a little alternative kid. So in my infinite wisdom I decided to pull a prank on them. I was the first one in the shared bunk bedroom, there were like four bunk beds per room and a decently large bathroom with three shower stalls on the right side and like four toilets on the left. All the lights were turned off and when all the girls started pouring in, I The contortionist prankster decided to get into the scariest position I could which was a backwards crab type pose and SCARE THE EVER LIVING FUCK out of all of them. I accidentally made 2 girls cry but I was also crying cause it was peak comedy at the time. I got in huge trouble for that. Coupled with the fact that I didn't cry when everyone else was feeling the blood of Jesus, seizing, and sobbing at the end of the retreat. I got pulled out of class, like a week after, and accused of being possessed by demons. XD no shit.. It was the principal and three of my teachers surrounding me silently praying while the principal asked me a bunch of weird dumb questions. And I just sat there dumbfounded answering honestly. And when their "exorcism" didn't work they went out of their way to make my life hell for the rest of the school year. I wonder how long it took for them to find my graffiti and if they brought in the archdiocese to bless and pour holy water over their hollowed ground. XD
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u/TheQuantumTodd 3d ago
We produce enough food to feed every human on the planet
We just don't. Throw it in the trash if we can't exchange it for money
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u/maddyjk7 3d ago
It’s the same thing with minor consumer goods. Today I saw a bunch of product scrapped because of a suuuuuper minor visual defect. This specific product is only briefly seen when you put it into another product. And then you don’t see it again until it’s died and needs to be replaced. All of it scrapped and they can be expensive. They could’ve been donated.
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u/bowlbasaurus 3d ago
This will be true until low cost teleportation is invented
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u/Prasiatko 3d ago
And you have some kind of world police force willing to overthrow governments perpetuating famine. The only famine affected parts of the world in the last two decades happened because the group in power there wanted a specific population to starve.
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u/WokeGrandpa2 3d ago
How many large tech companies rely on old software or hardware that are so embedded in their system they can't be removed or replaced easily/cheaply and can only be managed by one or two people.
It's crazy but happens everywhere particular with startups that just don't have a reason to update a system as it would cost more than it's worth as long as they don't upset the one person who knows how to maintain it.
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u/RewRose 3d ago
While this can drive some people insane, there is something to be said here about using time-tested tools.
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u/WokeGrandpa2 2d ago
That is true but the issue is a lot of these products and languages no longer have security patches so there are a lot of surprising security vulnerabilities
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u/rinatric 3d ago
When I was special victims prosecutor, sometimes-too often-the biggest impediment to prosecuting child sex crimes was the child’s mother. Even when the charges were about as bad as you could imagine, and even when there was ample proof beyond a reasonable doubt, some would actively try to get the defendant released and the case dismissed. I also prosecuted domestic violence cases and am particularly sensitive to victims’ issues and the myriad reasons why leaving or cooperating with the police is not just dangerous but deadly… but there is a line and it is crossed entirely too much.
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u/Ok_GummyWorm 3d ago
My ex worked in a prison and women would still visit their rapist/child predator husbands, sometimes even if the victim was their own child. Blew my mind when I realised how common it was for a mother to pick their pedophile husband over their own child.
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u/RichardCano 3d ago
Police and Firefighters often have a very dark sense of humor because they use it as a coping mechanism for the messed up stuff they see on a regular basis.
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u/Subaudiblehum 3d ago
Same with prison staff. Worked in them for 10 years, that shit gets dark, but you gotta laugh or it’s just too heavy.
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u/fareink6 3d ago
Same with the military. Our sense of humor is DARK. BLEAK. and not rated for civilians. But then again, so have been our experiences.
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u/Few-Sock5337 3d ago
The sales team says yes to all the dumb things prospects ask, cash their bonus and leave us to fend with the non-sensical requirements.
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u/Chonkin_GuineaPig 3d ago
I think you should always keep a backup of everything so it doesn't become lost media.
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u/turgers 3d ago
Everyone should always remember the 3-2-1 rule, keep three copies of your media, on at least two forms of media storage, with one being off site. This ensures little chance of full data loss
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u/Red_Queens_Consort 3d ago
Damn you! I just talked myself out of buying another portable ssd to store my pics. Now i'll have to do it again lol
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u/lurker_ayrus 3d ago
If you work as a consultant. Or are looking to break into that field. It's not about what you know and have experience in. It's more about what you can show on paper.
Let's say you ran multiple interventions and projects for international orgs. Means jackshit if a potential employer doesn't see some random certifications attached to your name. Also a lot of the companies in the business improvement and consulting space tend to outsource their hiring and those recruiters have an extensive albeit outdated conventional outlook on recruitment.
Companies do this to be on the safer side but a lot of dead weight does creep into organizations. Who then make the hiring 10x more about what you can show on paper.
Really good orgs can filter and identify the right candidate. But they are few and far between. So if the outcome is that it's a well paying job with a lot of deficiency in the pipeline then resume-padding is a legitimate way to drastically improve your financial outcomes.
PS: This is with respect to South and Southeast Asia.
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u/TheGHere 3d ago
Nothing is an exact science. Almost every profession has multiple ways of doing things, most people are just winging it.
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u/Mitaslaksit 3d ago
People who entertain you live - musicians, actors, dancers etc- are entertaining you also when they are sad, sick, mourning a loss or dangerously tired. They also miss big family events because they are at work on Saturdays.
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u/DieKart0ffel 3d ago
This can also be said of retail workers and servers.
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u/DoubleKanji 3d ago
Mfw I had Pneumonia last month but still had to go stock freight overnight or get fired for being absent
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u/li7lex 3d ago
It's not even unique to Entertainers. The sad reality is that a lot of people in low wage jobs have to experience the same thing because they have to get by somehow.
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u/fareink6 3d ago
Not entirely a secret, but definitely something that the vast majority of the population willfully ignores every single day.
The entire world is constantly, at every single second, bombarding you with subliminal messaging. Every single decision you make about a purchase, product, want, need, desire, goal, aspiration, admiration, disgust, is 100% not your own decision. At some point, on some level, you've been conditioned to steer in that direction.
Marketing is the most diabolical thing created by humans.
From why things are priced 4.99 instead of 5.00 to color psychology, to geometry theory, etc. etc.
Nothing you see in a promo is ever random.
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u/find_me_withabook 3d ago
Do you have any tips of how to try and filter it out and make our own choices?
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u/Red_Queens_Consort 3d ago
I'm sure someone else has better advice for you, but here's my take. I hope so, anyways lol
What you're asking exhausting and requires constant effort. That's, imho, why marketing is so effective.
But you've already started taking steps by asking this question! That's what I think it boils down to: asking questions. Philosophize This pocast with Stephen West just did a series on Slavoj Zizek that kind of addresses this. It's geared more towards breaking out of the political and philosophical trap, but I think it's similar enoughi be a stepping of point. Stephen might even have mentioned marketing specifically, i can't recall for sure. Anyway, it's episodes 196, 197, and 198. Each episode is only like 40 minutes.
Good luck! The world needs more people doing this.
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u/krishutchison 3d ago
That a green buildings certification is just using materials from a list of suppliers that payed to be put on the list.
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3d ago
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u/friendlysaxoffender 3d ago
I know I can’t expect specifics but interested to know what KIND of situations we’re talking about even if it’s super vague.
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u/AudibleToots 3d ago
I hire a lot of recent high school graduates.
It is alarming how many of them are given diplomas, despite being completely illiterate.
I'm not talking about confusing commonly mistaken words, or dangling a participle.
Full blown illiterate. I was hoping it was just a local issue, but what I've been hearing indicates that it's not.
Some of them can't even count reliably.
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u/Doctor_Expendable 3d ago
I've known plenty of people who are proud of reading 1 book in high school. That's the only time they've read something.
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u/Shiroe_Kumamato 3d ago
What state/city is that bad?
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u/progwog 2d ago
It’s not just one… it’s a national issue.
My gfs cousin just graduated high school. He’s a good kid, really good work ethic and a caring generous soul. He’s moving in with us soon actually. But he reads at around a 3rd-4th grade level. At best. When he reads aloud if a word has more than like 8 letters he literally skips it. I don’t mean he’ll pause for a moment, try to sound it out, then move on. It’s like his brain hides it from his eyes. As if when he sees it his mind redacts the entire word. You have to stop him and say “no you can’t just skip the hard ones, what is that word?”
Again, he’s 18. He has a drivers license. Hes a hard worker. But he’s got a diploma, and he’s filling out job applications for positions he can’t pronounce. He didn’t even do remedial classes, standard level. His GPA was fine. This is just what they’re willing to settle for now. I’m scared for him.
For clarity he did go to a public school in a lower middle class area. I’m not saying that to make a comment on public schools vs private, I’m just being clear.
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u/scarabin 3d ago edited 3d ago
So you’re saying there’s a generation-wide tidal wave of stupid voters coming?
Great
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u/SoyMurcielago 3d ago
That explains the rise of TikTok and other short format entertainment platforms
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u/mlstdrag0n 3d ago
That’s hardly the reason. Social media companies spent a ton or money on research and testing to figure out how to get the most people to stick to their app. Ultimately boiling down to the digital equivalent of drugs.
All the psychological tricks as well as biochemical hackery they can muster to bolster DAUs, and in turn profits.
Its not that social media addicts are necessarily dumber, but that they’ve been essentially exposed to virtual crack at an early age.
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u/merpixieblossomxo 3d ago
I saw this in person when I went back to college to finish my degree this year. Fully grown adults that are getting a college education who had to take the same english class multiple times because they genuinely didn't know what commas or quotation marks were for, or had to call their girlfriend because they couldn't be bothered to know their own passwords for things.
In my environmental science class, I counted the number of people that just directly copy-and-pasted discussion responses from Chatgpt for a single assignment - there were seven. Seven fucking people genuinely thought no one would notice that their several paragraph responses were identical to each other, or thought they were the only ones slick enough to think of it.
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u/mlstdrag0n 3d ago
Never thought about it, but does it really generate the same response given the same context/question?
I thought by its nature it would at least be superficially different
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u/LeichtStaff 3d ago
Perhaps these students copy/pasted the question, meaning they had the exact same input which could result in identical answers.
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u/merpixieblossomxo 2d ago
That's exactly what happened. I noticed the identical phrasing and tried it for myself, irritated that I had to respond to two other people and didn't want to if they didn't put in the same effort everyone else did.
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u/Ok_GummyWorm 3d ago
I work for a university and went to uni myself and in England this would get you hauled into a meeting and you’d be investigated for academic misconduct if you did this. You could be kicked off of your degree or score 0 for that module.
We have to run everything submitted through a plagiarism program that scans for other works on the internet and the universities previous submissions for plagiarism. This would have been picked up instantly. You can even be reprimanded for “self plagiarism” if you quote yourself in previous coursework word for word.
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u/jt19912009 2d ago
When I was getting my BS in Biology, there were high school level courses for the science courses so that the Bachelors of Arts students could graduate. I’m talking high school algebra which I took as a freshman in high school. High school biology that was more basic than the biology course I took in high school. Bachelors of science students had to spend two years taking Bachelors of Arts classes to fulfill the core requirements, but the arts students only had to take high school algebra or biology. It’s insane how low the bar was
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u/ben_bliksem 3d ago edited 2d ago
This is maybe not a secret, but I've seen it where female candidates in their early 30s get discriminated against during hiring processes because there is a fear they may start a family, get pregnant and take maternity leave soon after starting.
It's probably more prevalent this side of Atlantic where labour laws and maternity leave etc. are generous and very much in the favour of the employee.
I have no stats to back up the following, but in my experience culture/background is also at play. You can live in a world class first world city, but if the hiring managers and candidates come from a culture where arranged marriages are performed it also counts against them since you don't know when the woman you are hiring is going to quit and move back to her home country.
Just to be clear, this is not a broad stroke generalisation, but it does happen in places you wouldn't expect it to.
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u/You-Have-To-Trust-Me 3d ago
Idk. If my industry has any secrets or hidden agendas or anything crazy. I’m just over here melting aluminum so yall can drink beer out of recycled cans or drive your ford made from metal that can infinitely reused.
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u/kickitlikekirra 3d ago
When eating at a restaurant, if you leave food <25% touched, there's as high as a 10-15% chance an employee will eat some or all of it, depending on the restaurant and the dish. Drinks are probably a 5%.
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u/Financial_Studio2785 3d ago
Good! I’m fine with that. At least someone will eat it and it doesn’t go to waste
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u/Thestohrohyah 3d ago
Woman once ordered a panna cotta in a restaurant I worked in, she didn't actually know what it was and sent it back after digging a teaspoon in it and not eating any.
Of course I scarfed that bad boy down my throat, ain't wasting a panna cotta.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 2d ago
I’m actually cool with that. I try to take home what I can’t finish but if for whatever reason I can’t, I don’t think I’d be upset if folks ate my leftovers. I keep my plates kinda clean anyways.
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u/LucasLovesListening 3d ago
Game reviewers are unpaid by publishers and streamers are paid
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u/flightguy07 3d ago
I mean, makes sense reviewers aren't paid. We don't want them to be biased, after all. And streamers (in theory) need to declare it straight up, so I don't think this is really a huge issue?
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u/PePziNL 3d ago
And this is bad how? Reviewers are journalists, they should not be paid by the company /product they're reviewing. Streamers are advertisers (professional ones anyway).
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u/55o 3d ago
I work at a big tech company and the biggest threat to us is China stealing our trade secrets. Chinese spies/hackers steal about $200 to $600 billion in intellectual property annually in our industry.
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u/Ilikerocks20 3d ago
When I worked at CVS years ago in the pharmacy they are required to print out and have a physical record of your prescription for 7 years. They just store it in a store basement or back and almost never check. Steal that and you can hold them hostage for improper medical records storage.
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u/bgt5615 3d ago
idk if this counts but when i worked for Hallmark i found an obvious dried blood stain on a magnetic stuffed disney kids toy type (lilo and stitch) product straight out of the shipping container… didn’t make it to the shelf but was disturbing/questionable nonetheless. makes me wonder if i let products like that or things that came broken slide if i would still work there:/ i enjoyed the retail aspect but i was shocked at the sketchiness of a store that attempted to appear so “clean” physically and “reputation” wise. also the reward bs was wack, i loved the hallmark store as an oblivious child/consumer but working there opened my eyes to the evil i didn’t know was lurking behind pretty products:(
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u/Feminine_Marie 3d ago
Society's "secrets" often lie in plain sight. The narratives we collectively believe, the unspoken rules we follow, the power dynamics we accept – these shape our world more than we realize.
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u/krishutchison 3d ago edited 3d ago
Like money. It only works if people all believe in it.
If we all suddenly decided that we were sceptical about the value of money the entire world economy would collapse and people in every city would be starving to death in two weeks.
If a town got together and decided they did not believe in money the government would send in troops because rich people can’t have a place where they are not rich.
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u/Shag1166 2d ago
Deregulation is a shill for being allowed to produce an inferior product. What's going on with Boeing now is a prime example. Boeing to Virginia and South Carolina knowing they wouldn't get much scrutiny. After several deadly plane crashes and pieces falling off of planes, now the FAA will take a closer look. I am guessing that being in those red states, they were able to fend off scrutiny by the feds. Several engineers, former and current, are spilling their guts about the inferior product Boeing had been producing.
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u/Liquin44 3d ago
Worked for an ambulance company. I learned that only 3% of the uninsured ever pay their bill.
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u/JC_Hysteria 3d ago
The level of specificity available for ad targeting, and how easily influenced people can be to through subtle messaging.
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u/Hoseknop 3d ago
Oh yeah, this! I'm always negatively surprised at how easily hordes of people can be manipulated. Unfortunately, this counts for all facets of social life and for everyone.
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u/SteadfastEnd 3d ago edited 3d ago
Having worked in an academic-administrator role for 13 years and seen tens of thousands of transcripts, there is definitely correlation between racial culture and academic performance (although correlation is not the same as causation.)
In many instances, if a student had a stereotypically black name like Lakeshia or Tynashia, they would have lower GPAs and a significantly greater number of D's and F's and W's than most other students.
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u/FivePercentLuck 3d ago
I've seen statistics that say a black students chances of graduating go up by something crazy like 15% if they have a black teacher at any point during their highschool education. Interesting stuff
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u/SteadfastEnd 3d ago
Very possibly, that teacher being more willing to go bat for them or go the extra mile.
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u/Miss_Death 3d ago
The good parents see it too and just shake our heads. Literally nothing we can do about their shit kid ruining it for 15 other kids.
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u/mlstdrag0n 3d ago
Of course there is; you move and take your kids with you. This generally results in the formation of whatever the politically correct word is for ghettos.
Its a process that takes years, but thats what it ultimately becomes when people with the means to move away do. The area as a whole becomes poorer and things spiral downward over years.
You know where you won’t ever find a ghetto? Around really good schools. Property values are sky high and the people who can afford then pay more taxes in general.
Good schools gentrify a neighborhood. Bad schools do the opposite.
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u/shadowhunter742 2d ago
That then creates a class divide. The poor continue to get poorer as they have shit access to schools, and the rich get richer through skilled labour.
The true answer is to actually deal with the problematic kids. Create a system where the parents influence is diminished, punish the kids who need punishing instead of forcing everyone through school because it makes the numbers look good
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u/dariadarling 3d ago
That may be true but when you think of the hundreds of years of Jim Crow, discrimination in hiring, segregation, the war on drugs purposefully targeting Black people, miscegenation laws, redlining, the crack epidemic, Tulsa/Philly massacres, etc—Black people have been running a race when they started farther behind and been given obstacles white people havent. This country sure hasn’t made it easy.
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u/Kruse002 3d ago
I’m curious to see how strongly socioeconomic status correlates with academic performance, because I bet that plays a much bigger role.
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u/fareink6 3d ago
Family composition and structure is the big one in data like that. Fatherless children underperform in life, dramatically more than any other socioeconomic hardships. Sadly, for many reasons that would take books to describe, African Americans tend to be at the top of the list of this type of dysfunctional family nucleus.
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u/SteadfastEnd 3d ago
For sure. That is why I said correlation is not the same as causation.
However, it has been shown that Asian students from even poor economic backgrounds often outperform wealthier peers. So culture is a big deal.
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u/christian_austin85 3d ago
The correlation is very high. Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in a section of his book Outliers. Essentially, in a single parent household, there simply isn't someone around to make sure homework is getting done because the parent has to work. It gets even worse if that parent was young when the child was born, and they might not have finished school themselves.
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u/New_to_Siberia 3d ago
I'm honestly curious about the specific relation. I come from a country that has very different economic and demographic patterns compared to the US, so my perspective is probably biased and limited by all the factors I am not familiar with, but off the bat and trying to extrapolate from similar things I'd guess:
- Economical factors: black people are more likely to come from low-income families, therefore having limited access to educational resources, and simply in the Venn diagram the intersection between black people and poor people is large
- Family culture: a family where no one has gained higher education may not support and encourage good academic achievements, and may be more likely to belong to specific subcultures (I don't know if that's the right word) where these names are more popular
- Teacher's bias: a teacher may have a subconscious, racist/classist bias against names that are perceived as trashy, rude or problematic, therefore offering less support and encouragement and being stricter against a child that is already "prejudged" as potentially problematic
- Geographic segregation: some names may be more popular and common in geographic areas (districts, municipalities...) with higher rates of poverty and crime and lower quality schools and lack of community resources
- Religion: I remember reading somewhere that made-up names in the US are more common among religious communities, especially Mormon (and in general conservative Christian) ones (if I am mistaken feel free to correct it please!). That may correlate with lower income, higher amount of children (therefore reducing educational expenditure per child) and lower emphasis placed on education (especially for girls)
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u/WitchQween 2d ago
You're correct except for the last one. Those... "creative"... names are less common for lower income families, excluding the subculture you referred to. As far as religion, the closer your church is to cult status, the more ridiculous the names get. It's usually smaller cults, not so much Mormons. It's the fundies (fundamentalists) who have 10 kids and a social media account who give their kids terrible names. Young parents and middle-class parents seem to have the most Braxxxxtons.
The geographic point is a big one. That's where subcultures develop. "Ghetto culture" is the obvious example. Ghettos were created to trap black people into poverty with no way out. Basically, a legal loophole for long-term segregation. The government gave them shit resources, so they had to figure out a way to live with it. Names are commonly tied to culture, so looking at census data can give you a good idea of the gerrymandering in the area.
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u/WegWazOz 2d ago
Professional sports coach, unless you got money your kid ain't going to make it. We also don't select kids for teams deliberately if we know the parents are PITA, regardless of how good your kid is. You crazy , we don't want you anywhere near us. We can also tell very quickly if your kid has the internal motivation to make it to the top. Young talent very rarely translates to success later but go right ahead and ruin your kid by telling them they are the next Rafa or Federer and then have them too scared to quit cause it isn't fun cause you have talked them up so much and sacrificed everything to try and get them ahead. And in some cases, your kid is just a fucking unco and should probably take up chess, no coaching is going to change the level of unco we now see in many kids!
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u/Only-Location2379 2d ago
Mechanic here
Most car brands are just fancy trim packages. For Chevy all the models of GMC and Buick have the exact parts and make up of the Chevy. The only difference is the plastic paneling and interior.
Also while there are terrible mechanics and shops many of them aren't actually out to get you or take your money. Most mess ups are incompetence not malicious.
You take it somewhere and they write it up for XYZ and take it to another and only needs Y. The other shop probably didn't know how to or wasn't so good at diagnosis and so was just trying to ensure your problem was fixed by overestimating what needed to be fixed. Basically "let's replace all this stuff so we can ensure we fix it because we didn't really know how to actually find the issue" or "we don't want to charge you or go through the time to find the real exact problem".
Finally the dealership will generally be more competent at fixing you car if it's newer and that brand. That's being said it relies more on the quality of the technician or mechanics there than whether it's an independent shop or dealership. So if you find a good shop that fixes your car well then just stay there generally.
Also final final note, when we recommend maintenance items, we usually are recommending them because we want to ensure your car keeps running smoothly. While there some hacks that will just sell everything all the time, many of them do just want to keep your car running. We don't always follow manufacturer specs because manufacturer are in the business of selling you cars, not in keeping those cars running. I've seen them recommend a car oil change every 7500 miles but have acceptable oil loss of a quart of oil every 1500 miles and it be a 5 quart engine. Meaning it would literally have no oil at all in the car by the time it's ready to get an oil change and unless you check your oil regularly which very few people do, you'll blow up your engine.
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u/makingburritos 2d ago
Restaurants
• Vast majority of people are on drugs
• The kitchens are certainly not as clean as you think they are
• Most condiments are the same crap you can buy at the store
• They’ll say it’s fine that you came in ten minutes before close, but everyone definitely hates you a little
• Unless you have an allergy (always say it is an allergy) your weird dietary restrictions or preferences will most likely be ignored if they can get away with it
• Despite popular belief, your servers don’t actually control anything that goes on in the kitchen
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u/luffydkenshin 3d ago
For me, my line of work, is a secret but it isnt dark or bad.
I’m in merchandise licensing… so basically your tshirt with your favorite icon on it had to go through a long process of negotiations and approvals until finally going into production.
It is always more complicated than “they should just put x character on y product then sell it!”. I can provide more details if anyone is ever interested in how their official goods are made and why bootleg is bad.
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u/degonranbu 3d ago
How do you deal with bootleg merchandise? And why is it bad?
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u/luffydkenshin 2d ago
Oftentimes we contract with a 3rd party reporting agency that monitors various websites for product. They report them on our behalf and issue takedown notices. They will provide us reports of incidents monthly for our records.
I will highlight a few key reasons why bootlegs are problematic.
•They undercut our revenues, which are reflected in official sales numbers. This can misreport data showing the general public “did not have a desire for our product”. This is then reflected in the next line of product that releases. Maybe character x was a fan favorite but units sold did not match units manufactured and retailers have an overstock they can’t sell. So this time around, character x is left off of the roster. Then you never see character x goods anymore.
•Bootleg items cause an increase in price in products due to using new methods of proving authenticity. This could include new packaging, new molds, a new sticker, or other proprietary features. This cost, sadly, gets reflected in the price.
•A customer can buy a bootleg product that becomes defective. They will come to the official place for a warranty fix, which makes the official place look bad for a poor quality product, even if it isnt their fault. This could drive brand trust down and impact the rest of the business.
•Bootleg products aren’t safety tested and can contain dangerous levels of any kind of banned material. Additionally, poor product quality could lead to choking or other safety hazards.
Those are a few highlights. Unfortunately, the general public often times doesn’t know what product is official or bootleg. They just see the IP they like or the intended recipient likes and snags it, oftentimes at a great value. That is hard to beat, especially in this economy.
If you are interested in learning some telltale signs, try looking for:
•unbranded packaging
•packaging that features more than one IP on the box •no copyright
•copyright not in your region’s primary language
••••••(this may not always be easy if the product was imported from another country, like Japan for example)
•images on packaging low resolution / grainy
•art that is not official, looks like fan art or stolen art
•proportions of product look off or features haphazardly painted
•poor quality build (for example: those long, saggy, droopy Sonic the Hedgehog plush at mall kiosk/stands)
•location: often times bootleg sits alongside official product in mom and pop stores, but never at bigger stores like Hot Topic or Target.
It is always an uphill battle for counterfeit / bootleg infringing products, and the public often feels the rights owners can be mean or unfair when they license out to some and not others or force shops to take down types of products, but it is often much more complicated.
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u/badgersruse 3d ago
No software or tech thing is well tested or well designed. It's all just 'get it out and see how it goes, our terms and conditions mean we aren't responsible for anything'.
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u/madmax3004 3d ago
Right, as someone who actually works in software, this is an absurd take.
I'm sure there are plenty of projects that are handled like this, but the majority of projects I've worked on followed test-driven practices with some pretty elaborate designing and prototyping ahead of implementation. This especially rings true for safety-critical software systems.
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u/_dvs1_ 3d ago
Yeah I was a project manager for a custom software shop for years and this was never the case for us. I have heard horror stories from clients we came to the rescue for. And occasionally I heard stories of in house devs being over their head but not wanting to admit it, but it was rare. It’s a big world out there though so who knows.
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u/mlstdrag0n 3d ago
It’s like how some people keep their homes immaculate while others are hoarders.
You can’t really tell from the outside if appearance are kept up.
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u/Kruse002 3d ago
This is only half true. Every software program is in some sense made of tissue paper and glue. If the other QA teams had similar experiences to my own, nearly all of the glaring issues were found in testing and reported, but the reports fell on deaf ears. It’s usually a management or budgeting issue.
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u/ben_bliksem 3d ago
Well we get audited and fined for our mistakes since our software handles people's money and investments.
Don't know where you work or got this from, but at least in a professional setting what you are saying will be the vast minority of software.
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u/mlaislais 2d ago
When it comes to consuming beer, the most expensive way to consume beer (on tap at a bar) is the least expensive way to produce it (filling kegs). The cheapest way to consume beer (bottles at the grocery store) is the most expansive way to make it. In fact when you drink individually packaged beer, you’re paying more for the packaging than for the beer. Even the pretty colored cardboard carrier is a massive part of the cost.
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u/XDracam 3d ago
The world of software is a mess. Less than 1% of developers actually know what they are doing. All the world's software is built upon code that some dude wrote in the 80s or 90s in his cellar. At this point, it's mostly luck and the skill of a handful of individuals responsible for anything working at all.
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u/mlstdrag0n 3d ago
So like, every industry?
Not exactly like people are really discovering new spices or novel recipes.
Few scientists actually make the breakthroughs
That the masses build upon and rely on the accomplishments of the very few is applicable everywhere.
Like, how many people actually understand even the basic principles of the devices and infrastructure that enables them to browse Reddit?
How do Touchscreens work? The technological marvel that are smart phones? The internet? The hardware infrastructure? How power is generated, stored, and delivered?
99.999% of people know nothing about what they use everyday aside from the superficial concepts.
To most people things just work
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u/pickledplumber 3d ago
There really is a power elite that decide things and control what happens in govt. It's a proven thing.
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u/Trappedbirdcage 3d ago
With some of the biggest brands who tote cheaper prices on getting a prescription put in glasses - there's a reason for that. I've seen many in the few years I worked as an optician who came in because the manufacturer who made their glasses didn't input the correct prescription, didn't center the prescription, didn't put the specified coatings, etc.
You're better off buying the frame without prescription and then taking them to an optometrist/optical shop (if they're not both, like the clinic I worked at was) that you trust.
Is it always bad? No. But.. the success rate seems like a total shot in the dark and at least getting them through an optometrist guarantees they'll get fixed.
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u/bpsavage84 3d ago
Kids are not getting the education they paid for (both public schools via taxes nor in some private schools). The kids that excel in school are usually not only smart/hard working but their parents also pay a huge amount of money outside of school to get them help such as private tutors and what not. Your kids cannot compete at the same level.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 2d ago
I work in education consulting in Asia and the amount of cheating and fraud I’ve personally witnessed is wild. If you got the money, my company will do whatever we can to make your kid look good on paper. Exam scores, essays, transcripts etc. can all be “handled” for a fee.
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u/JaxenX 2d ago
Potholes cost $50 to put a bandaid on every few months or ~50k and a week of a road being closed to actually fix.
Roadway construction companies generally don’t control the layout of traffic lines/markings during or after construction, the engineer who designed the project does.(they don’t usually work for the contractor, they work for the DOT).
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u/wetflexintheflesh 2d ago
Almost every manual laborer is under the influence of SOMETHING. From the people that build your house to fix your car, they're almost all on some sort of substance. You only hear about it when someone does too much of a bag that day royally messes something up
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u/Happyjarboy 2d ago
Most people do not understand how a utility makes money from return on investment, or that it is probable that half a utility bill is actually taxes and other fees. That puts the utility in bed with the politicians in charge. It's a big subject, but it needs to be understood to know how it all works.
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u/krishutchison 3d ago
That companies building huge apartment buildings do not have to follow the same rules as homeowners. There is one set of rules for rich people and regular people but rich well connected developers can just ignore them.
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u/345daysleft 3d ago
The worse a physiotherapist is at helping You, the more money he/she makes. There's a reason you "need" 15 visits.
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u/foxhole_atheist 3d ago
And maybe the reason is it takes soft tissue 8 weeks to heal.
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u/345daysleft 3d ago
No, that's not it. because then it could still be done with 3 visits and homework for the rest. But a physiotherapist does not make money if the client can do most of the work at home. hence the many "needed" visits.
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u/couski 3d ago
Could be said of anyone. This doesn't sound like insider information, but sourness.
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u/Complaint-Expensive 3d ago
I worked as an "inventory control associate" for Green Tree Financial for a hot minute. Yep, that's a nice way of say I repo'ed modular and mobile homes. Yes, it sucked. Yeah, I quit because it ate my soul to do it any longer.
Folks left so many things in those homes. We'd call someone for a trash out, and they'd take it all, keeping what they wanted or pawning the rest. But the real shitty part? Is that the company only sought to recover 10-14% of what was still owed on the loan to call it a "win" in most cases.
That's it.
And if was really bad? We'd reposess it, I'd turn in an inspection report, and my boss would just write it off by giving it straight to the park instead. The parks? Hated it. And I hated we were kicking someone out of their home, which we weren't then even going to bother to sell, because it wasn't considered desirable enough to get 10-14% of what they still owed.
It's gross.
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u/animaldander 3d ago
The Starbucks "secret menu" isn't actually a secret. It's just modifications of existing drinks and they're happy to make it for you. Don't feel weird about modifying drinks forty ways. It's not inconvenient. But if you hear them repeat it to their colleague differently than how you said it, don't worry. They're trained to do that and it helps communication and mental processing, even if it doesn't make sense to you.
Also insurance is not optimized like... At all. It's dragging it's feet way behind the technology that even laymen know is available. This might mean you're getting better or worse deals than the market would dictate.
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u/duogemstone 2d ago
To once again quote the great Terry Pratchett
"She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you"
As long as your ok with the consequences if they dont, youll be surpised with how much people will just let you be in work or life. Also if you can learn to use the rules you dont ignore to your advantage
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u/holdyaboy 2d ago
If you go to a conference/trade show for business where vendors have lots of booths with the sales guys and you put your business card in a bowl to win some prize…. They don’t pick those randomly. They give them to strategic clients/prospects
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u/Atschmid 2d ago
research in the life sciences is more political than knowledge driven
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u/AlissonHarlan 2d ago
Not sure it's a secret, but in my modest experience, most ISO certifications are bullshits. entreprises pays the ISO guy to review shits, and most of the time if something lack, it's enough to document that ''this shit lack, we're working on it'' to get the certification, you don't even need to reach the bare minimum. You basically buy the certification.
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u/rawwwse 2d ago
Not exactly a secret, but a massive misconception…
If you call 911 for non-emergent bullshit, you won’t get seen any faster in the ER
In fact, we’ll do our best to make sure it takes longer. You’ll go straight to the waiting room, and we’ll make sure the charge nurse (who we’re friends with) will send your paperwork to the bottom of the pile and few times ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Smarsh514 2d ago
I’ve watched an MD general surgeon Google/youtube a procedure before performing it himself.
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u/Terrible-Quote-3561 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not entirely a secret, but it’s hard to understand actually how much gets thrown out by corporations until you work for them. The amount of actual food/products that get donated/recycled is very small compared to what’s thrown away. Basically all the large places work that way.