Economy & Labor,Interesting FactsMAR 14, 2023

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves

Vėja Elkimavičiūtė and Adelaide May Ross

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I’m a firm believer that everyone is smart, we just don’t all know the same things. Depending on your profession, your life experiences, and your interests, what you consider obvious might be mind-blowing to someone else. So to celebrate all of the niche information that people have floating around in their brains, one curious Reddit user posed the question, “What fact is common knowledge to people who work in your field but almost unknown to the rest of the population?”

From insight about installing carpets to working as a barista, we hope you’ll learn something from the facts down below. Keep reading to find a conversation between Bored Panda and the man who started this thread in the first place, and be sure to upvote the information you find most fascinating!

#1

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves

A corporate policy of requiring users to change their passwords every 90 days **does not** make your system more secure. It tends to actually make things less secure.

kms2547, Mourizal Zativa

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377points

#2

Modern cars aren’t made weaker than old cars, or at least not in the way people would expect. A good example of this is if an old car hits a modern car and the modern car is crumpled to f**k and the old car looks like nothing happened. The cars nowadays aren’t ‘weaker’ or ‘made cheaper’, it’s a safety design and the reason this happens is so that if you have a collision the cars bodywork absorbs the energy of the impact and crumples, while you walk away from the crash relatively unharmed. An old car on the other hand doesn’t absorb the impact, which means the energy of the impact is felt by everyone inside the car instead, which is extremely dangerous and depending on the severity of the accident can badly injure or kill the occupants of the vehicle. Your car isn’t ‘cheaply made’, it’s an intentional safety design by the company that has saved so many people from broken bones, potential paralysis and death.

george_reeves_

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373points

#3

As a chemist the thing that gets me every time is the, "I don't want chemicals in my......" statement.

LITERALLY. EVERYTHING. IS. A. CHEMICAL. SUSAN.(KAREN)

raethas, National Cancer Institute

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371points

We reached out to the person who posed this question in the first place, Reddit user RageCage42, and he was kind enough to have a chat with us about how this conversation started. “I came to realize that ‘common knowledge’ is anything but common,” he told Bored Panda. “It can be completely different depending on each person's unique perspective. A mundane fact that you deal with every day at your job might be something that would utterly shock someone on a different career path.”

#4

Drowning is silent. I pulled out a kid literally less than a foot away from a large group of adults and not one of them noticed that his head was totally submerged and that he was struggling.

chachagirlsmom, Tim Marshall

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351points

#5

Turning your computer or phone off and on again will fix a solid 70-80% of all problems the device likely has.

BleedingTeal

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346points

We were curious if RageCage42 could share anything from his own profession that the general public would find fascinating. “I used to be an astronomy researcher, and it's common knowledge amongst astronomers that the Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with our own Milky Way galaxy,” he revealed.

“In a few billion years, these galaxies will collide, merge, and eventually form a completely new galaxy. But the empty space between the stars is so huge that even though these two galaxies contain over one TRILLION stars in total, it's likely that none of those stars will ever run into each other,” the OP explained.

#6

If the menu has way too many choices that probably means the food is all frozen.

Realtimallen69

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343points

#7

The first thing you do if you think your computer is being hacked is unplug it from the network (or disable the Wi-Fi).

skribsbb

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313points

We also asked RageCage42 if he was partial to any of the replies his post received. “It's hard to choose any one favorite response, but I really enjoyed learning all the ways the world doesn't work the way most people assume it does,” he shared. “For example, coffee shops spend more on milk than they do on coffee; the matting under your carpet can be more important than the carpet itself; and the best treatment for a child's anxiety is often to treat their parents' anxiety.”

#8

That if your IT Guy is not busy, he is doing a good job, not a bad one and you don't need to fire them

HyruleJedi, AltumCode

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306points

#9

Hair is not alive. If your hair is damaged, you can't "fix" it. No matter what that bottle of conditioner tells you. Products that claim to fix damaged hair just deposit a coating of wax, simethicone, or dimethicone on the hair shaft that makes it look smooth. This build up will eventually make your hair limp and dull. The best solution to damaged hair is a haircut.

Queengnpwdrgelatine, Tamara Bellis

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290points

Finally, the OP shared that he believes all jobs are equally fascinating in their own ways. “Every job provides a different, unique cross-section of human knowledge - and none of them ever overlap in the same places,” he told Bored Panda. “In fact, it's almost guaranteed that each set of on-the-job knowledge is going to include some tidbits that would never occur to someone in any other line of work.”

So regardless of what you do for a living, I'm certain you know something that all of your fellow pandas don't. We hope you enjoy reading through this list, and if you'd like to share fun facts from your own profession, feel free to in the comments down below!

#10

Most swiss cheeses (Gruyère, emmentaler, Appenzeller) are lactose-free, as well as any cheese that's been aged at least 2 years, like Parmigiano Reggiano or an aged gouda. I work at a cheese shop, and clients are usually surprised when I share that information with them. I wish more people with lactose intolerance knew about it!

NatchoFriend

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281points

#11

Just because a disabled child/person is non-verbal, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t understand everything you’re saying.
It’s crazy how often I have to tell my own staff to watch what they’re saying. These kids still get embarrassed or upset if you talk about the massive s**t they just took right in front of the whole class.

Mespegg

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265points

#12

The President doesn't control the Economy.

A shocking theory for most people I talk to.

goodnt-guy

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265points

#13

Truckers leave extra space between themselves and the vehicle in front of them because if they are fully loaded they need the the extra space to be able to stop without flatten the someone. A truck can weigh the same as more than 50 small cars.

They don't leave the space, out of the goodness if their hearts, for a couple of cars to squeeze themselves into and create a potentially fatal situation!

Vinterblad, jay huang

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265points

#14

The best treatment for a child with anxiety is treating their parent’s anxiety.

mmmnms, Kelly Sikkema

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251points

#15

In Jewelry, a diamond is a luxury expense not an investment. Gold is the investment. If you try to sell your engagement ring you’ll get maybe 20% of what you initially paid for it. Jewellers can get diamonds for a fraction of what you paid for it.

victorvanhux, Tahlia Doyle

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243points

#16

Nuclear power is pretty handily the safest and cleanest method of electricity generation. However, thanks to general misunderstanding and pop culture (looking at you, Simpsons), public trust in nuclear is lower than coal.

prtproductions

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230points

#17

The "essential" in essential oils doesn't mean it is *essential* to your body or health.

It basically means that it is the pure essence of that particular plant or flower.

So many people have taken this to mean that they are literally *essential* to our health and well being. It hurts my brain.

JohnyUtah_

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227points

#18

It really does help us at the library when you don't reshelve your own materials.

(Not because we don't trust you to know where they're supposed to go, but because if you put it away yourself, we can't keep track of the fact that someone looked at it, which is useful information for us to have.)

throwaway5272

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223points

#19

If you're putting in new carpet, always go top shelf with the pad. The increase in cost is neglible and the upgrade to feel, usability and endurance of the rug on top will be way better dollar to value ratio than spending on the carpet itself. 8 lb memory foam is maybe 2 bucks a yard more than trash apartment grade stuff but 10 times better underfoot.

Go for the cheapest carpet you can stand (remember, you aren't going to be running your fingers through your house's carpet for more than 3 days after it's installed) and put the best damn pad money can buy under it. You'll spend less and it'll feel like you bought 50 dollar a yard carpet.

Seraph_VI

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213points

#20

Potential cancer cells develop in the human body every day and our immune system efficiently kills them without any trouble and we just go on living our lives like nothing ever happened.

rickbarr21, National Cancer Institute

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208points

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