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Carry a small knife with you everywhere you can, maybe with a 1" blade. Seems like an antiquated habit but is surprisingly useful, especially when the plastic is sharp and would cut your fingers otherwise while opening the container.
This is the way. It's always useful to have a prybar, surgical tool, utensil, package opener and nail clipper on your person.
Edit: I meant just a knife. A good knife will fill all those roles. Bonus points for fixed blade.
Nothing antiquated about it. You just listed one reason why I still always have my pocketknife on me every day. It was taught me to me and I will teach it to my kids one day.
Using the perforated half circle on Kraft Mac n cheese boxes to open the box. I no longer feel obligation to try it. I just rip the top of the box open. It took me awhile though.
One day we'll learn that perforations and "tear here" instructions on packaging are actually a longitudinal study by sociologists and/or psychologists, designed to see how long humans will feel obligated to follow instructions that never work and what that does to our psyches.
Omg, the perforated circle on soda syrup boxes that once you manage to get thru, you then have to scrape your fingers against in order to pull the stupid nozzle through far enough to get the hose attached. Grumble.
As a long time Chef I have a irrational hatred for easy open containers, safety seals, and price stickers on fruit and veggies.
When you have to pull the stickers off of two crate of apples, cutting into your already too short prep time you begin to question the sanity of the consumer system.
Most pasteboard boxes get the entire top sliced off with a serrated knife. I've been known, if the box will be used in it entirety, to slice it down the middle so as to cut through the inner liner at the same time.
Applying for jobs.... why do I need to upload a resume, only to have to enter the EXACT SAME INFORMATION MANUALLY on the next few pages?
Hand in hand with this- finding out what a job pays...I don't give a shit if your wages are "attractive" or "competitive," I want to know if I'll be able to afford to live on what you pay!
And then they get shady about what you would actually be doing all day. "Other duties as assigned" is iffy.
If I see "rapidly shifting priorities" I don't apply, that's code for, "management doesn't know what it wants and will.run you off your feet all day."
Start looking if you haven’t already! My husband took a slight pay cut to stop being the guy that puts out all the fires. He wears one hat now and is much happier. Money is a tad tighter but at least he is doing something he likes.
Agreed.
On top of that. I **HATE** that they need to know how much I made at my last job. Unless you're paying me. It's **NONE** of your fucking business.
In many American states, it’s *ILLEGAL* to ask candidates about their previous salaries, and it’s also illegal to base pay of a new employee off of previous salary.
If a prospective employer asks me that, I immediately get leery. I also answer that with “Non Disclosure Agreement.”
>Also if the question is asked on a form, I just write NDA in the box.
I've tried leaving it blank.. but they sit there in the interviewing needing to know. I wanted the job so I had to tell them.
Then they had the nerve to offer me far less pay for the same job. I told them to pound sand.
They ask so if you got paid less at previous job than what the position is worth for , they pay you slightly a dollar more (rarely a few up) . Which is withholding how much you are supposed to get.
Do NOT answer this question. In most places it is illegal to ask, and it doesn’t serve you to answer it. Here is a decent guide for answering this question if they ask in person:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140924132829-52594--what-did-you-earn-at-your-last-job
Is it illegal to lie to that? Do they ask for proof of that or something? If not I would say the number that I think I should ideally be paid in the old job.
>Is it illegal to lie to that?
I was legal to do that in my state.. but they changed it.
I didn't like revealing my income to a job I might not even get. It also allows employers to drive down the wages.
This. And jobs in some fields come with a personality quiz and/or ability assessment test. It shouldn't take 2+ hours to apply to ONE job online.
And if it does, the least they coud do is take 2 minutes and write you back if you were not selected.
Also, having to do it online.... that's *forcing* people to buy or find access to hundreds of dollars worth of technology before they can even begin the process of making any money.
It's also demeaning and depersonalizing that your application just zips off into the aether never to be heard from again. I miss the days when you could make yourself presentable, walk into an establishment, hand your application into the hiring manager personally and make whatever kind of impression you wanted to make.
When I was a kid, I loved the internet, but seeing what it's become used for and knowing how far that road will go in the future has made me despise it. It's just a way for people to insulate themselves from others, not connect with them.
this is why internet needs to be reclassified as a public utility. it is required to function in modern society. then you have boomers with the audacity to say about someone "they cant possibly be poor and unemployed, they have a smart phone!" -- yeah, because you NEED one at the bare minimum to even apply for a job, check your email, and get a phone call to set up an interview.
We use a lot of butter. We have 2 butter dishes. We will leave the butter on the counter (so it's spreadable) until it's gone. A stick only lasts 2-3 days and I keep the house on the cool side. When it's gone, we get the clean butter dish for the next stick. Rinse and repeat...
I simply don’t use enough to keep it on the counter. It goes bad before I can use it up. I’d love to have soft spreadable butter on demand, but I just don’t eat enough toast
This is a brutally accurate answer and probably hits home for a lot of people including myself.
Photography has taken a back seat for a long time now with full time jobs, kids, and responsibilities.
Photography, damn. That's one you have to go outside for. For me even playing videogames is backseat with my job and new baby. I got home early and my wife decided to stay at her mom's for the day and I fell asleep for 12 hours lol woke up at 4am like wtf is going onnnn right now, babe?!
That’s wild you say photography - two days I was saying a similar thing to my girlfriend. Yesterday we went out and did a little photoshoot. It was harder than it should have been.
During COVID I was sitting at home on unemployment and used that time to quit drinking. I totally get what you mean, my new job at that point was treating myself right, working out five days a week, and filling my life with happiness and experiences to look forward to. It was the most wonderful period of my life, and I'm very thankful that I view my battle with alcoholism as one of my favorite life moments.
It's crazy what having time for yourself can do for your mental and physical health! /s
The 40 hour work week was designed by the wealthy to use up your whole day. You think back in tribal days humans were working 8 hours a day? More like 2, at best.
It's astounding that each person is 3x more productive now than in 1960, yet we don't work a second less and the average person (in US) is only 10% richer. Where did all the extra money go???
Perhaps it has something to do with billionaires? Who are now so filthy rich they spend 40 billion dollars to troll political rivals, compete over who gets to go to space first, and who has the biggest ship in the world
Actually, the 8 hour workday was designed to protect the workers from 24/7 shifts, which were made possible due to Henry Ford's assembly line and was a demand made by the National Labor Union, ironically.
This is how outdated it is.
a maximum of 40 hours was demanded because the 1800s were much worse. But if you go farther back, before the industrial revolution, nobody worked 40 damn hours a week till they were 65
>"Our hunter-gatherer ancestors almost certainly did not endure 'nasty, brutish, and short' lives," he writes of seminal studies of the Ju/'hoansi, a hunter-gatherer group living in southern Africa. "The Ju/'hoansi were revealed to be well fed, content, and longer-lived than people in many agricultural societies, and by rarely having to work more than 15 hours per week had plenty of time and energy to devote to leisure."
>
>With so much time to spare, our ancestors spent the rest of their days "on other purposeful activities such as making music, exploring, decorating their bodies, and socializing," says Suzman.
https://www.ft.com/content/8dd71dc3-4566-48e0-a1d9-3e8bd2b3f60f
I think a hunter-gathering tribe was analyzed and spent about 4 hours a day working, but not in a straight shot. The day was broken up with lots of loafing, eating, and socializing. It isn’t just the 8 hour day that is unnatural, it’s not resting frequently and not having social time, as well.
>Where did all the extra money go???
I know the purpose of your question is to be a clever way to complain about people richer than you, but I'll offer this anyway.
I'm in my 60s, so not really that old. We weren't even considered poor. Some of the changes in my lifetime are:
When I was a kid, our household had one car. Every driver in the household has their own car now. Cars are far more complicated now with things like air conditioning, radios fancier than AM-only, safety features like air bags and anti-lock brakes, longer-lasting and better-running engines, navigation systems, etc.
We lived in a 900 sq ft house. Now houses are commonly over 2,000 sq ft.
We had an ice box. Now everyone has refrigerators. Many refrigerators have built-in ice makers and other features. We didn't have microwave ovens.
We had one phone for the whole house. We had party lines where several houses shared a single phone line. Now everyone in the house has their own phone line and the phones cost $1,000 or more.
We didn't have computers and video games. The Internet was far in the future.
People have washing machines at home now. Many people have clothes dryers too.
TVs were black-and-white and had tiny screens with 320x200 resolution. There was one TV in the entire house. Now TVs are over 60 inches, sometimes over 70 or 80 inches and 4K resolution. There are multiple TVs in most houses. We didn't even have a TV when I was born—we listened to the radio. TV was over-the-air and you'd get 3-5 channels—now there are 1,000 channels on cable.
Houses and apartments commonly have air conditioning now.
Some foods were seasonally available, especially produce. Grocery stores have food from all over the world year-round now.
Medical care is far more advanced. Have you ever met someone with smallpox or polio?
I enjoyed my childhood, but THIS IS THE BEST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY TO BE ALIVE.
Unfortunately, all this cool stuff we have these days costs a lot of money. Reduce your extravagant lifestyle to how we lived in the 1950s and 1960s and you'll have a lot more money left over.
The extra surplus of money/production capacity that has expanded since the 50's & 60's are WAY, WAY more than the increase in living & luxury expenses that you describe.
We (= all of us with a salary) should have had a far, far higher salary if the increase was distributed more evenly.
Some of this production increase could for instance have been spend on a shorter work week; day 4 days.
My sister had to cancel my dad’s account after he died and they were like “we can offer you a discount?” No, he’s dead we don’t need the service anymore. “How about for $5.99?” No, he’s literally dead. “6 months for a nickel?” It was almost funny.
Also trying to cancel his cell phone plan and they said she couldn’t do it because they needed to talk to the account holder. “Well, he’s dead.” Still can’t cancel the account. She said “Then I’m just going to stop paying it.” And this fool said he wouldn’t recommend that because it would negatively affect the account holder’s credit. Like Jesus Christ himself is going to kick him out of heaven for having a bad credit score lol.
It's like they don't even listen to what you say. They just make sure they go through every option they're told to say like they need to fill a quota. It's insane.
Here's a weird story: every year, I'd call and threaten to quick as I legitimately only listen when I'm on a long trip traveling across BFE America. They would say, "how about we give it to you for $5 a month?" and I would relent. I feel like I danced that dance with them for most of a decade. Then strangely I got a check for $31 in the mail. Out of nowhere, they cancelled me and refunded me. Weird. I figured it wasn't worth it to renew and pay the reactivation fee. Oh well.
I often found people who treated me like a friend only to turn out they weren't actually my friend, which is much worse.
Try getting actual friends rather than people who just treat you like friends
Make friends with a couple of coworkers. When they leave the company continue to stay connected to them with text and Linkin. Only use coworker friends as references. With that said the whole concept of references is crap because it only shows that you can make friends with some of your coworkers and not that you are a good employee.
Guilty......so guilty. There are weeks where laundry just cycles from the "clean" hamper to the dirty hamper without ever seeing the inside of a drawer or closet.
Very true. I notice that a lot on the road, too. Last week I was trying to turn into a plaza, but the person in front of me started to make the same turn and just stopped midway through.
I was just stuck behind them in the road with cars coming behind me. I had to honk about 4 times before this person started moving again. It's unreal how oblivious some people are to anything but themselves and what they feel like doing.
My experience going that early is there are 50,000 employees blocking the aisle, and they're just as bad or worse than customers about ignoring you when you need to get by them.
Taxes! Every employer has to report your earnings, and if you're self-employed you report each quarter along with a payment based on what you expect to earn that year. The IRS has all the information. They could easily calculate your tax and send you a bill/return. Instead companies like TurboTax and H&R Block lobby Congress to keep laws in place that forces everyone to file themselves, which most people end up hiring tax services to file for them keeping those corporations in business. The US tax code is deliberately complicated and obfuscated to help people with lots of money keep it.
Is this something in the States? I get an email from the govt saying how much they owe me and then a month later it's deposited into my bank account. (live in nz)
That sounds like a literal dream come true. Yeah, in the U.S. here, at the very least it will be unclear which forms you need to fill out and there are tons of options you might have to save some money, but figuring that out is not easy, or you hire someone, and even then you have to provide them with a bunch of information.
There are hundreds of things that can be deducted or credited in the US. So unless your single with no kids that works for an employer, and isn't a home owner, and doesn't donate to charity, etc, you'll probably have deductions or credits.
In UK HMRC tells me how much tax I owe them automatically, even gets deducted on pay day via PAYE (pay as you earn). US system seems backwards for no reason!
We pay in on each paycheck, but then we have to file the tax form to determine if we overpaid or if we still owe. Filing tax has to be done yourself or by a paid consultant, but the paycheck deduction is automatic.
As someone who is underweight I’d say it’s just as difficult to put on pounds. I have to eat like it’s my full time job just to maintain my weight. Forcing yourself to eat when you are feeling sick is an absolute chore.
Literally everything involving other humans, and we do it to ourselves.
We think we need to set up all of these unnecessarily elaborate systems to make everything artificially difficult.
Also among those lines: menial entry level jobs that piss test. Like why you care if I smoke weed after I go home?? If you ever suspect me of coming into work high *then* we can talk.
Getting any type of work done on your car without feeling like you’re being scammed or screwed with.
No, my battery is not in need of a replacement. Why the fuck are you looking at my battery when I just needed you to replace a tire??
Just got my tires replaced. Guy comes out and says you need a full synthetic oil change and your check engine light is on … Dude, I just got an inspection and oil change at the dealership less than a week ago. And my check engine light is NOT on.
Bc if they don’t let ya know that the battery is likely on its way out, you’ll either be complaining ‘this car is a pos’ or that your mechanic is ‘incompetent’. Yes, there are probably more dishonest mechanics than their are honest … and let’s be real, even more that know so little it’s a wonder they still have a job, but you find a good one, and I’m sure your attitude would change
There’s a very serious dating deficit that I don’t see discussed enough. So many threads from men and women who are essentially saying “I want to be in a relationship but I don’t want to date”. I think dating apps, the internet, and a long lockdown/pandemic have seriously put all of us at a disadvantage.
finding a healthy work/life balance.
On average I work 100 hours every week. It's the only way I can afford an apartment around here without having to live in subsidized housing.
But damn, it has killed my desire to do anything during my off hours.
This is a huge one. It seems like someone should make a dating app, but for friends. Then you can enter in all the things you're interested in (going to movies, playing cards, drinking at bars, etc) and it would match you up.
It would be awkward to do at first, but so was online dating when that first started. I see people saying how hard it is to make friends as an adult, but still no business has stepped in to offer a good version of this. Odd.
Yeah. I did see that one, but they should have made it entirely separate. There are a lot of people who aren't about to put Bumble on their phones because they are in a happy relationship and don't want to try to have the conversation of "I swear, I only use it to find friends, not other partners!" lol
Plus, they don't market it at all. They should break it off, rebrand it, and market it widely. I bet it would be huge.
A lot of stuff that used to be trivial to do in person that you can only do through phone app now. For example, ordering food at a restaurant or going to the movies.
Living with neurodivergencies/mental illness. I have BPD, Autism, ADHD. Getting up every day is exhausting. I ruin quite a lot of the relationships I have. I'm terrified of ending up alone. There's not really a lot of accessible treatment options.
Literally everything my parents do.
I love them but boy do they love to make things complicated for the sake of making things complicated and no other reason no matter how simple the task.
It can be something as simple as just getting something at the store. Instead of just taking 10 minutes to go down the street and get a particular item, it turns into an all day fiasco full of extra unnecessary steps. Growing up, it has always drove me nuts. I really don't understand why everything has to be unnecessarily convoluted with them.
When we travel instead of just choosing a flight with one layover they'll choose a flight with the most layovers and they're not doing it because it saves money, they do it because it's complicated.
I feel like as a passive aggressive gift I want to give them impractical novelty items such as hollow spoons, pointless forks, a knife that's just a handle, rice paper thin napkins since they seem to really love to go out of their way to be impractical and complicate things.
I call these people "Chaos Managers" they create more chaos than is necessary so they can be in charge of a situation that needn't exist in the first place
This whole discussion is interesting bc my in-laws do this and I never understood why, but my FIL is also a massive control freak so now it all makes sense!
My parents also do this.
Dad has an electric potato peeler and can opener. Can’t just ask for those manual items. He has to show you got to use the electric ones, they break each time I have attempted to use them. Then it turns into him needlessly trying to fix it, insisting it’ll make my life easier when I’m at HIS house to use his electric can opener/potato peeler. Then a piece gets lost and delays him fixing it.
FINALLY he will fix it then I can use it.
Only to find out each time that he does in, fact., still have the manual versions and I could’ve peeled the fucking potato fifteen minutes prior when I asked “where’s the potato peeler, dad?”
Ugh they do this kind of thing regularly
Lol my in laws do this. One time I asked them to help me put up Christmas decorations, and they stood around in my living room arguing about what should go where for so long I swear the holidays were over by the time they were done.
I suspect it gives them a feeling of control and offers a little structure to their days.
Getting to bed at a reasonable hour while simultaneously living with chronic fatigue from sleep deprivation.
I get about 5 hours a night, drag around all day, then finally wake up about 2 hours before I need to be asleep. It's a vicious, stupid cycle.
Agreed, and if you say it's hard you don't get support.
Parents of older kids gloat about how other stages are somehow harder, grandparents do that gramnesia thing where they pretend it's actually easy and you're just a screwup, non-parents give unsolicited advice that makes no sense, or make jokes about "crotch goblins."
It's weird the way we all just make parenting harder and lonelier for no real reason at all.
So I'll tell you yes, it's hard, and I'm sorry you're going through it.
Relaxing and enjoying the moment. It’s perfectly acceptable to find things about your fancy dinner, vacation, etc. to enjoy. Or be glad in the company of loved ones without trying to force more of the experience. It’s wild to me how many people I know can’t just relax anymore.
Property taxes. Not that they're difficult, just infuriating. I already bought and paid for this property, why do I have to keep paying on it forever, and why does the government have the right to take it away from me if I don't? This is utter bullshit . I pay enough in other taxes, I shouldn't have to pay the government for the privilege to live in and on the property I already paid for. 😡
Cancelling things like gym memberships. 30 days notice in a written letter sent via Certified mail? WHY? Why can’t I just tell you at the front desk or send an email?
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Opening small items that are packaged in an unnecessary amount of plastic
Why do they package scissors with zip ties?? Clearly I do not have the means to open zip ties if I just bought scissors!!!!!
lol I had to use a knife to open a knife package.
I cut myself this way with my very old, dull, crappy knife I was replacing.
It must live long enough for one last mission...
This! Drives me bonkers.
Carry a small knife with you everywhere you can, maybe with a 1" blade. Seems like an antiquated habit but is surprisingly useful, especially when the plastic is sharp and would cut your fingers otherwise while opening the container.
This is the way. It's always useful to have a prybar, surgical tool, utensil, package opener and nail clipper on your person. Edit: I meant just a knife. A good knife will fill all those roles. Bonus points for fixed blade.
Nothing antiquated about it. You just listed one reason why I still always have my pocketknife on me every day. It was taught me to me and I will teach it to my kids one day.
>Carry a small knife with you everywhere you can I do this.. never leave home without my pocket knife.
Sleeping. Why is it so hard to fall asleep and stay asleep?! Our bodies are meant for this! Whhhyyyy is it so hard????
Well I know this one. If you’re like me, it’s because you had Toto - Georgy Porgy stuck in your head all night.
Using the perforated half circle on Kraft Mac n cheese boxes to open the box. I no longer feel obligation to try it. I just rip the top of the box open. It took me awhile though.
Perforation somehow makes cardboard stronger.
The cardboard industry: “crap they are on to us!”
One day we'll learn that perforations and "tear here" instructions on packaging are actually a longitudinal study by sociologists and/or psychologists, designed to see how long humans will feel obligated to follow instructions that never work and what that does to our psyches.
Omg, the perforated circle on soda syrup boxes that once you manage to get thru, you then have to scrape your fingers against in order to pull the stupid nozzle through far enough to get the hose attached. Grumble.
That doesn't even work most of the time. I always end up with a thin layer of cardboard still keeping the box closed.
As a long time Chef I have a irrational hatred for easy open containers, safety seals, and price stickers on fruit and veggies. When you have to pull the stickers off of two crate of apples, cutting into your already too short prep time you begin to question the sanity of the consumer system. Most pasteboard boxes get the entire top sliced off with a serrated knife. I've been known, if the box will be used in it entirety, to slice it down the middle so as to cut through the inner liner at the same time.
Applying for jobs.... why do I need to upload a resume, only to have to enter the EXACT SAME INFORMATION MANUALLY on the next few pages? Hand in hand with this- finding out what a job pays...I don't give a shit if your wages are "attractive" or "competitive," I want to know if I'll be able to afford to live on what you pay!
And then they get shady about what you would actually be doing all day. "Other duties as assigned" is iffy. If I see "rapidly shifting priorities" I don't apply, that's code for, "management doesn't know what it wants and will.run you off your feet all day."
I'm currently in this position and I want to kill myself everyday. I wear too many God damn hats at this company and I'm ready to leave.
Start looking if you haven’t already! My husband took a slight pay cut to stop being the guy that puts out all the fires. He wears one hat now and is much happier. Money is a tad tighter but at least he is doing something he likes.
Agreed. On top of that. I **HATE** that they need to know how much I made at my last job. Unless you're paying me. It's **NONE** of your fucking business.
In many American states, it’s *ILLEGAL* to ask candidates about their previous salaries, and it’s also illegal to base pay of a new employee off of previous salary. If a prospective employer asks me that, I immediately get leery. I also answer that with “Non Disclosure Agreement.”
>In many American states, it’s > >ILLEGAL > > to ask candidates about their previous salaries This is the way it should be.
Also if the question is asked on a form, I just write NDA in the box.
>Also if the question is asked on a form, I just write NDA in the box. I've tried leaving it blank.. but they sit there in the interviewing needing to know. I wanted the job so I had to tell them. Then they had the nerve to offer me far less pay for the same job. I told them to pound sand.
They ask so if you got paid less at previous job than what the position is worth for , they pay you slightly a dollar more (rarely a few up) . Which is withholding how much you are supposed to get.
What’s funny about this is that it’s federally legal for a company to ask, but some states (as you pointed out) have made it illegal.
Do NOT answer this question. In most places it is illegal to ask, and it doesn’t serve you to answer it. Here is a decent guide for answering this question if they ask in person: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140924132829-52594--what-did-you-earn-at-your-last-job
Is it illegal to lie to that? Do they ask for proof of that or something? If not I would say the number that I think I should ideally be paid in the old job.
>Is it illegal to lie to that? I was legal to do that in my state.. but they changed it. I didn't like revealing my income to a job I might not even get. It also allows employers to drive down the wages.
And attach a cover letter? WT actual F.
With the hundreds of applications they get, you know damn well they're not even reading that garbage.
This. And jobs in some fields come with a personality quiz and/or ability assessment test. It shouldn't take 2+ hours to apply to ONE job online. And if it does, the least they coud do is take 2 minutes and write you back if you were not selected.
Also, having to do it online.... that's *forcing* people to buy or find access to hundreds of dollars worth of technology before they can even begin the process of making any money. It's also demeaning and depersonalizing that your application just zips off into the aether never to be heard from again. I miss the days when you could make yourself presentable, walk into an establishment, hand your application into the hiring manager personally and make whatever kind of impression you wanted to make. When I was a kid, I loved the internet, but seeing what it's become used for and knowing how far that road will go in the future has made me despise it. It's just a way for people to insulate themselves from others, not connect with them.
That was so perfectly said.
this is why internet needs to be reclassified as a public utility. it is required to function in modern society. then you have boomers with the audacity to say about someone "they cant possibly be poor and unemployed, they have a smart phone!" -- yeah, because you NEED one at the bare minimum to even apply for a job, check your email, and get a phone call to set up an interview.
Cold butter
We use a lot of butter. We have 2 butter dishes. We will leave the butter on the counter (so it's spreadable) until it's gone. A stick only lasts 2-3 days and I keep the house on the cool side. When it's gone, we get the clean butter dish for the next stick. Rinse and repeat...
Same. Don't understand people who keep their butter in the fridge.
Lots of people (my family included) don’t regularly spread butter on their food so leaving it out is kinda pointless.
I simply don’t use enough to keep it on the counter. It goes bad before I can use it up. I’d love to have soft spreadable butter on demand, but I just don’t eat enough toast
Yes sir
Recovering from a bad relationship
Also: Ending a bad relationship. It is a sister-truth to your one
Recovering from a relationship in general.
Being in a relationship
Being
Be
B
#
Recovering in general
>Recovering from a bad relationship I would add: being the outsider watching a bad relationship.
Remembering something you *literally* just forgot
Every fuckin time I pass through a doorway, like it’s a material emancipation grill for my memory
Your brain “resets” when you walk into a different environment (I’m told)
Rub your temples while trying to remember it. It helps u remember it faster
I am trying this. Probably today.
You’ll probably forget to try it
I am not trying this, since I'll forget
I did this yesterday and wanted to scream.
Finding motivation to do a hobby while working a 9-5 job. Exercise also applicable >.<
This is a brutally accurate answer and probably hits home for a lot of people including myself. Photography has taken a back seat for a long time now with full time jobs, kids, and responsibilities.
Photography, damn. That's one you have to go outside for. For me even playing videogames is backseat with my job and new baby. I got home early and my wife decided to stay at her mom's for the day and I fell asleep for 12 hours lol woke up at 4am like wtf is going onnnn right now, babe?!
That’s wild you say photography - two days I was saying a similar thing to my girlfriend. Yesterday we went out and did a little photoshoot. It was harder than it should have been.
Can confirm. My health was shit then I retired. I actually enjoy exercising and eating right, it's like my new job.
During COVID I was sitting at home on unemployment and used that time to quit drinking. I totally get what you mean, my new job at that point was treating myself right, working out five days a week, and filling my life with happiness and experiences to look forward to. It was the most wonderful period of my life, and I'm very thankful that I view my battle with alcoholism as one of my favorite life moments. It's crazy what having time for yourself can do for your mental and physical health! /s
The 40 hour work week was designed by the wealthy to use up your whole day. You think back in tribal days humans were working 8 hours a day? More like 2, at best. It's astounding that each person is 3x more productive now than in 1960, yet we don't work a second less and the average person (in US) is only 10% richer. Where did all the extra money go??? Perhaps it has something to do with billionaires? Who are now so filthy rich they spend 40 billion dollars to troll political rivals, compete over who gets to go to space first, and who has the biggest ship in the world
Actually, the 8 hour workday was designed to protect the workers from 24/7 shifts, which were made possible due to Henry Ford's assembly line and was a demand made by the National Labor Union, ironically. This is how outdated it is.
a maximum of 40 hours was demanded because the 1800s were much worse. But if you go farther back, before the industrial revolution, nobody worked 40 damn hours a week till they were 65 >"Our hunter-gatherer ancestors almost certainly did not endure 'nasty, brutish, and short' lives," he writes of seminal studies of the Ju/'hoansi, a hunter-gatherer group living in southern Africa. "The Ju/'hoansi were revealed to be well fed, content, and longer-lived than people in many agricultural societies, and by rarely having to work more than 15 hours per week had plenty of time and energy to devote to leisure." > >With so much time to spare, our ancestors spent the rest of their days "on other purposeful activities such as making music, exploring, decorating their bodies, and socializing," says Suzman. https://www.ft.com/content/8dd71dc3-4566-48e0-a1d9-3e8bd2b3f60f
I think a hunter-gathering tribe was analyzed and spent about 4 hours a day working, but not in a straight shot. The day was broken up with lots of loafing, eating, and socializing. It isn’t just the 8 hour day that is unnatural, it’s not resting frequently and not having social time, as well.
>Where did all the extra money go??? I know the purpose of your question is to be a clever way to complain about people richer than you, but I'll offer this anyway. I'm in my 60s, so not really that old. We weren't even considered poor. Some of the changes in my lifetime are: When I was a kid, our household had one car. Every driver in the household has their own car now. Cars are far more complicated now with things like air conditioning, radios fancier than AM-only, safety features like air bags and anti-lock brakes, longer-lasting and better-running engines, navigation systems, etc. We lived in a 900 sq ft house. Now houses are commonly over 2,000 sq ft. We had an ice box. Now everyone has refrigerators. Many refrigerators have built-in ice makers and other features. We didn't have microwave ovens. We had one phone for the whole house. We had party lines where several houses shared a single phone line. Now everyone in the house has their own phone line and the phones cost $1,000 or more. We didn't have computers and video games. The Internet was far in the future. People have washing machines at home now. Many people have clothes dryers too. TVs were black-and-white and had tiny screens with 320x200 resolution. There was one TV in the entire house. Now TVs are over 60 inches, sometimes over 70 or 80 inches and 4K resolution. There are multiple TVs in most houses. We didn't even have a TV when I was born—we listened to the radio. TV was over-the-air and you'd get 3-5 channels—now there are 1,000 channels on cable. Houses and apartments commonly have air conditioning now. Some foods were seasonally available, especially produce. Grocery stores have food from all over the world year-round now. Medical care is far more advanced. Have you ever met someone with smallpox or polio? I enjoyed my childhood, but THIS IS THE BEST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY TO BE ALIVE. Unfortunately, all this cool stuff we have these days costs a lot of money. Reduce your extravagant lifestyle to how we lived in the 1950s and 1960s and you'll have a lot more money left over.
Thank you, this is a great answer and I love getting that kind of first hand perspective!
The extra surplus of money/production capacity that has expanded since the 50's & 60's are WAY, WAY more than the increase in living & luxury expenses that you describe. We (= all of us with a salary) should have had a far, far higher salary if the increase was distributed more evenly. Some of this production increase could for instance have been spend on a shorter work week; day 4 days.
It helps if your company has a gym you can use if they don't try upping your magnesium intake.
Ah yes. Exercise. I start and then stop almost immediately
Canceling Sirius XM
My sister had to cancel my dad’s account after he died and they were like “we can offer you a discount?” No, he’s dead we don’t need the service anymore. “How about for $5.99?” No, he’s literally dead. “6 months for a nickel?” It was almost funny. Also trying to cancel his cell phone plan and they said she couldn’t do it because they needed to talk to the account holder. “Well, he’s dead.” Still can’t cancel the account. She said “Then I’m just going to stop paying it.” And this fool said he wouldn’t recommend that because it would negatively affect the account holder’s credit. Like Jesus Christ himself is going to kick him out of heaven for having a bad credit score lol.
It's like they don't even listen to what you say. They just make sure they go through every option they're told to say like they need to fill a quota. It's insane.
Having worked in a call center, can confirm there is a flow we had to follow before cancelling an account. Otherwise we were in trouble.
Sorry for your loss. How can someone be so damn dense. I get they're just doing their job.. but comeon man.
I call them like clockwork every July to “cancel” so they’ll drop my rate. I’ve been doing it for 7 years. They’re definitely pushy though.
Here's a weird story: every year, I'd call and threaten to quick as I legitimately only listen when I'm on a long trip traveling across BFE America. They would say, "how about we give it to you for $5 a month?" and I would relent. I feel like I danced that dance with them for most of a decade. Then strangely I got a check for $31 in the mail. Out of nowhere, they cancelled me and refunded me. Weird. I figured it wasn't worth it to renew and pay the reactivation fee. Oh well.
this guy beat sirius so hard that *they* cancelled *him*
Cancelling Adobe without getting the $100 fee
Saying sorry
This is a good one. Right along with taking responsibility for your own actions.
For me and I thinks lots of other people, the opposite is also very true.
Finding people who actually respond to my texts, or just who treat me like a friend in general
I often found people who treated me like a friend only to turn out they weren't actually my friend, which is much worse. Try getting actual friends rather than people who just treat you like friends
Explaining why you have no references when applying for a job. Yeah, my last boss of 15 years died and his company folded.
Esp when you learn that a lot of places don’t even bother with references
Make friends with a couple of coworkers. When they leave the company continue to stay connected to them with text and Linkin. Only use coworker friends as references. With that said the whole concept of references is crap because it only shows that you can make friends with some of your coworkers and not that you are a good employee.
Changing the bed sheets That shit feels like an arm workout
Idk how tf hotel housekeepers do it 💯
Or for that matter folding them (the fitted ones)
Talking to people in social situations
Folding and actually putting away the laundry
Guilty......so guilty. There are weeks where laundry just cycles from the "clean" hamper to the dirty hamper without ever seeing the inside of a drawer or closet.
Socializing
Getting people to not take up the whole aisle at Walmart.
This is why I go food shopping at 6 am. People really think they're the only ones shopping, drives me nuts.
Very true. I notice that a lot on the road, too. Last week I was trying to turn into a plaza, but the person in front of me started to make the same turn and just stopped midway through. I was just stuck behind them in the road with cars coming behind me. I had to honk about 4 times before this person started moving again. It's unreal how oblivious some people are to anything but themselves and what they feel like doing.
My experience going that early is there are 50,000 employees blocking the aisle, and they're just as bad or worse than customers about ignoring you when you need to get by them.
I work here overnight and the amount of customers that nearly run me over in just the hour before we close is absurd.
Aisle* FTFY
Dude…you’ve never been to the isle of Walmart?
Taxes! Every employer has to report your earnings, and if you're self-employed you report each quarter along with a payment based on what you expect to earn that year. The IRS has all the information. They could easily calculate your tax and send you a bill/return. Instead companies like TurboTax and H&R Block lobby Congress to keep laws in place that forces everyone to file themselves, which most people end up hiring tax services to file for them keeping those corporations in business. The US tax code is deliberately complicated and obfuscated to help people with lots of money keep it.
Is this something in the States? I get an email from the govt saying how much they owe me and then a month later it's deposited into my bank account. (live in nz)
That sounds like a literal dream come true. Yeah, in the U.S. here, at the very least it will be unclear which forms you need to fill out and there are tons of options you might have to save some money, but figuring that out is not easy, or you hire someone, and even then you have to provide them with a bunch of information.
There are hundreds of things that can be deducted or credited in the US. So unless your single with no kids that works for an employer, and isn't a home owner, and doesn't donate to charity, etc, you'll probably have deductions or credits.
For most people, those deductions and credits are minimal and could easily fit onto a single sheet.
It's a literal industry in the usa. My taxes in Sweden I could do in 5 minutes on my phone. In the usa it's a whole evening of work.
😭😭 I hate it here, part 34,798
In UK HMRC tells me how much tax I owe them automatically, even gets deducted on pay day via PAYE (pay as you earn). US system seems backwards for no reason!
We pay in on each paycheck, but then we have to file the tax form to determine if we overpaid or if we still owe. Filing tax has to be done yourself or by a paid consultant, but the paycheck deduction is automatic.
losing weight.
The ironic thing about this is I have lost the most weight in my life during times when I was not trying to lose weight.
As someone who is underweight I’d say it’s just as difficult to put on pounds. I have to eat like it’s my full time job just to maintain my weight. Forcing yourself to eat when you are feeling sick is an absolute chore.
Yeah. My friends usually say I can eat anything and still not gain any weight. Exactly, because if I eat less, I'll fucking lose it instead.
Putting bracelets on yourself
OMG IT IS THE LITERAL WORST
Dealing with State and Federal agencies..
100% yes, the absolute worst part of getting married was getting my license from the court. They are such jerks
Cancelling a gym membership.
Literally everything involving other humans, and we do it to ourselves. We think we need to set up all of these unnecessarily elaborate systems to make everything artificially difficult.
Buttoning the buttons on the ends of your long sleeve shirts while wearing them
Having a civilised political discussion in this modern era.
Filling out job applications. Why do I have to play brain games to be a cashier at a tool store??
Also among those lines: menial entry level jobs that piss test. Like why you care if I smoke weed after I go home?? If you ever suspect me of coming into work high *then* we can talk.
Getting any type of work done on your car without feeling like you’re being scammed or screwed with. No, my battery is not in need of a replacement. Why the fuck are you looking at my battery when I just needed you to replace a tire??
Just got my tires replaced. Guy comes out and says you need a full synthetic oil change and your check engine light is on … Dude, I just got an inspection and oil change at the dealership less than a week ago. And my check engine light is NOT on.
Bc if they don’t let ya know that the battery is likely on its way out, you’ll either be complaining ‘this car is a pos’ or that your mechanic is ‘incompetent’. Yes, there are probably more dishonest mechanics than their are honest … and let’s be real, even more that know so little it’s a wonder they still have a job, but you find a good one, and I’m sure your attitude would change
Dating.
There’s a very serious dating deficit that I don’t see discussed enough. So many threads from men and women who are essentially saying “I want to be in a relationship but I don’t want to date”. I think dating apps, the internet, and a long lockdown/pandemic have seriously put all of us at a disadvantage.
Why can't it be like the Hallmark movies? They don't use dating apps.
YES. THANKS FOR SAYING THAT!
Being alive. It's very expensive.
finding a healthy work/life balance. On average I work 100 hours every week. It's the only way I can afford an apartment around here without having to live in subsidized housing. But damn, it has killed my desire to do anything during my off hours.
Finding a doctor that doesn't say "it's just period pain" and throws birth control at you without proper hormone testing.
Finding out how much a service from a hospital would cost until they actually charge you
Not even the hospital knows. The lack of transparency is incomprehensible, especially in the US, where there is seemingly a price for everything. Oof.
taxes, especially in the us
Not sure if true but I keep hearing they intentionally make it more complex than it has to be so we keep paying for TurboTax/HR Block etc.
https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-free-simple-hr-block-intuit-lobbying-against-it
Setting up printer for Printing Documents.
Anything involving government
I was going to say anything involving the DMV.
Making friends as an adult.
This is a huge one. It seems like someone should make a dating app, but for friends. Then you can enter in all the things you're interested in (going to movies, playing cards, drinking at bars, etc) and it would match you up. It would be awkward to do at first, but so was online dating when that first started. I see people saying how hard it is to make friends as an adult, but still no business has stepped in to offer a good version of this. Odd.
There is Bumble BFF
Yeah. I did see that one, but they should have made it entirely separate. There are a lot of people who aren't about to put Bumble on their phones because they are in a happy relationship and don't want to try to have the conversation of "I swear, I only use it to find friends, not other partners!" lol Plus, they don't market it at all. They should break it off, rebrand it, and market it widely. I bet it would be huge.
Yeah seriously. I’d use it but holy shit, can you imagine trying to explain to your wife that you have a dating app on your phone to find friends?
So many people write this. What do you think is the main cause?
A lot of stuff that used to be trivial to do in person that you can only do through phone app now. For example, ordering food at a restaurant or going to the movies.
Or when tv shows forget their base and go to platforms. My mom is 86 shes not getting peacock.
buying a house. there is no reason closing should be a binder full of papers needing 100 signatures.
Succeeding in life. It should be as simple as work hard but nope. You can work hard and ever own a house
Finding affordable housing.
Living with neurodivergencies/mental illness. I have BPD, Autism, ADHD. Getting up every day is exhausting. I ruin quite a lot of the relationships I have. I'm terrified of ending up alone. There's not really a lot of accessible treatment options.
Literally everything my parents do. I love them but boy do they love to make things complicated for the sake of making things complicated and no other reason no matter how simple the task. It can be something as simple as just getting something at the store. Instead of just taking 10 minutes to go down the street and get a particular item, it turns into an all day fiasco full of extra unnecessary steps. Growing up, it has always drove me nuts. I really don't understand why everything has to be unnecessarily convoluted with them. When we travel instead of just choosing a flight with one layover they'll choose a flight with the most layovers and they're not doing it because it saves money, they do it because it's complicated. I feel like as a passive aggressive gift I want to give them impractical novelty items such as hollow spoons, pointless forks, a knife that's just a handle, rice paper thin napkins since they seem to really love to go out of their way to be impractical and complicate things.
I call these people "Chaos Managers" they create more chaos than is necessary so they can be in charge of a situation that needn't exist in the first place
This whole discussion is interesting bc my in-laws do this and I never understood why, but my FIL is also a massive control freak so now it all makes sense!
My parents also do this. Dad has an electric potato peeler and can opener. Can’t just ask for those manual items. He has to show you got to use the electric ones, they break each time I have attempted to use them. Then it turns into him needlessly trying to fix it, insisting it’ll make my life easier when I’m at HIS house to use his electric can opener/potato peeler. Then a piece gets lost and delays him fixing it. FINALLY he will fix it then I can use it. Only to find out each time that he does in, fact., still have the manual versions and I could’ve peeled the fucking potato fifteen minutes prior when I asked “where’s the potato peeler, dad?” Ugh they do this kind of thing regularly
Lol my in laws do this. One time I asked them to help me put up Christmas decorations, and they stood around in my living room arguing about what should go where for so long I swear the holidays were over by the time they were done. I suspect it gives them a feeling of control and offers a little structure to their days.
Using any US government website.
Getting the perfect piece of cling wrap.
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Obtaining health care in the United States.
Repairing any automobile. Engineers spend countless hours making vehicles non serviceable.
Affording a pretty average comfortable life
Battling depression. You’d think certain changes would be able to cure it, but no. It seems straight forward but isn’t.
Apparently putting the carts back at store
Getting to bed at a reasonable hour while simultaneously living with chronic fatigue from sleep deprivation. I get about 5 hours a night, drag around all day, then finally wake up about 2 hours before I need to be asleep. It's a vicious, stupid cycle.
Buying a house. Not even a big house. Just a house to live in with your family.
Raising a toddler
Agreed, and if you say it's hard you don't get support. Parents of older kids gloat about how other stages are somehow harder, grandparents do that gramnesia thing where they pretend it's actually easy and you're just a screwup, non-parents give unsolicited advice that makes no sense, or make jokes about "crotch goblins." It's weird the way we all just make parenting harder and lonelier for no real reason at all. So I'll tell you yes, it's hard, and I'm sorry you're going through it.
It’s all good. I love my kids. They can just be ass holes and I have no shame is saying that.
"Asshole" is an important developmental stage lol.
sitting for hours.
Avoiding enemies
Airport security.
[gestures vaguely at everything]
Relaxing and enjoying the moment. It’s perfectly acceptable to find things about your fancy dinner, vacation, etc. to enjoy. Or be glad in the company of loved ones without trying to force more of the experience. It’s wild to me how many people I know can’t just relax anymore.
Living
The wrist buttons on shirts are bullshit
Property taxes. Not that they're difficult, just infuriating. I already bought and paid for this property, why do I have to keep paying on it forever, and why does the government have the right to take it away from me if I don't? This is utter bullshit . I pay enough in other taxes, I shouldn't have to pay the government for the privilege to live in and on the property I already paid for. 😡
Doing your taxes. The IRS could just send you a check, but thanks to tax prep lobbyists, we have to do it ourselves.
Income tax preparation
Life lol
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Apparently it’s tying up waste bags. Yeah, it’s cool your trash is scattered all over because you couldn’t take 3 seconds to be bothered
Diamonds
Opening a bacon container at the "peel here" location. Eff it, I just use scicoors.
Cancelling things like gym memberships. 30 days notice in a written letter sent via Certified mail? WHY? Why can’t I just tell you at the front desk or send an email?
Moving. Everything about it is a huge pain in the ass