Had someone contact me because a browser interface was ‘down’ and it was actually a cert issue. It surprised me that in an IT context, this person didn’t have a basic understanding of SSL certs. They didn’t even know how to add a cert exception.
It got me thinking, what basic ubiquitous things am I a dumbass about outside of IT?
Ive seen lots of ‘fun facts’ compilations, but it would be better to get a wide range of subject suggestions that I can spend 30 minutes each or less on, and become a more capable human.
Like what subjects would plumbers consider basic knowledge? Chemical interactions between cleaning products and PVC pipes?
What would an accountant or a landscaper consider to be so basic its shocking people can live their lives without knowing any of it?
For most areas of expertise, its difficult to know even what the basics are to start with.
How to do basic DIY. Do you know all the functions of your drill? Can you screw something in to wood, brick, plaster - for dab and cavity? What fixings and screw types should you use? Can you re-wire a plug? Change a tap? Wire an Ethernet connector and punchdown? Balance your books, calculate your tax, basic car maintenance…?
As a software engineer or IT person it’s easy to think we’re all so very smart, but anyone skilled in ANYTHING will know so much you don’t in their own subject.
Basically everyone is an idiot about most things.
Weirdly enough I’m an IT guy and can do all of those things, some of them only in a basic way which is why I leave taxes and car maintenance to the professionals.
Basic knife skills is something I’m often almost shocked by. I had a housemate last year who’d bought herself a decent Sabatier chef’s knife (like this) but the way she cut veg, she may as well have been using a sharpened bit of moss. All the gear and no idea. Thankfully she forgot to take it with her or something when she moved out so it’s my knife now.
“or something”… You hid it didn’t you lol
What we need really is a skills tree for real life. Then it would be much easier to spot the things you’re level 1 in.
I work in IT and I need this. This field is vast and sometimes it’s hard to know what you don’t know, or how well you know what you know.
Sure, there’s certs, but they just show how well you’re familiar with that particular field (or worse yet, that you know how to pass that particular test).
I work in IT and I need this.
Always use a one lead voltage
metertester when working on electricity. Don’t trust your breakers. Don’t trust light switches.Are you talking about the meters that simply detect whether wires are still live or not? Definitely a good backup to double check that you’ve shut off the right breaker.
If you’re talking about a single lead multimeter to measure voltage, I’ve never heard of such a thing and don’t know how that would even work.
This one can detect voltage with a single lead and also works as a voltage meter if you use two leads: https://www.benning.de/products-en/testing-measuring-and-safety-equipment/test-equipment-voltage-tester/voltage-tester-duspol.html
It also has an inbuilt motor to distinguish leaking voltage from continuous AC.
Sorry if I didn’t use the correct English terms and that wasn’t clear enough.
In Germany you simply call it a Duspol and every electrician knows what you mean. Didn’t research enough into the English description but it seems it’s a two pole voltage tester with one pole voltage detection mode.
‘Electrical safety’ for this one I think?
Sure. Also invisible electricity in general. If you can see it it’s many times not a good thing.
If people say ‘i have excel competence’, the difference could be between ‘i can resize fonts and do tables for my company forms because I don’t know how to do them in word’ to ‘fully modelling a business plan for a Telco, including it’s subsidiary units’. Make sure you test for the level of competence you’re after.
Learn a new formula every now and then, or at very least learn to read other people’s formulas, then google what you don’t know. Literacy in any field is the result of a long process of learning.
(Reread your question) Outside of IT: if an appliance stops working, it’s sometimes just a fuse that needs replacing. It’s cheap and easy to do.
If someone tells me they’ve mastered excel, they’re either overqualified for any job I’ll ever hire them for (I’m not in IT) or lying.
Microbial pathogenesis here. This one’s a fun one for me, especially since COVID revealed just how illiterate the average person is about diseases. Here’s a couple that I think should be common sense
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Not all bacteria cause disease. In fact, very few bacteria cause disease. Many bacteria are even helpful to us, so you should really weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics if you’re considering using antibiotics.
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Antibiotics don’t work against viral infections. You’re getting all the downsides of killing helpful bacteria and getting none of the benefits
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Do not blindly trust your immune system. Your immune system works 100% of 50% of the time. Many white blood cells take the philosophy of murdering everything in sight just to be safe. This can and often does include killing important cells in your body that just happen to be nearby the site of infection. Even if you survive the infection, you will be weakened as a result. If you can avoid getting sick in the first place, avoid getting sick.
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Vaccines work. I don’t really know what else to say about this one.
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Viruses and bacteria aren’t hard to kill. There’s many compounds that can kill viruses and bacteria. But humans aren’t hard to kill either. The tricky part is figuring out how to kill viruses and bacteria while also keeping the human alive. Basically: don’t drink bleach. It will kill your bacteria or virus but it’ll kill you too
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E. coli isn’t a usually bad bacteria. Actually, it’s a very important bacteria that helps us digest food. The reason it gets such a bad reputation is because it’s relatively hard to kill, which makes them a very good way to quickly check if there’s a possible food/water contamination. In other words, the presence of E. coli itself isn’t bad, but finding E. coli does suggest that there might be other, more dangerous bacteria.
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DO NOT EAT MOLDY FOOD. The fuzzy part that you see is just the fruiting body of the mold, analogous to a flower on a plant. The real body of the mold is an invisible network of roots that tunnel through the core of the food. Even if you cut off the fuzzy portion, you’re still eating most of the mold.
Could you say something about why it’s bad to eat moldy food, and why it’s bad to kill the good bacteria in your body? I know your intestines can function less well, is there anything else?
why it’s bad to eat moldy food
For starters, it’s poisonous and tastes like shit.
you should really weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics if you’re considering using antibiotics.
Is that a choice you can make where you’re from? Here in Germany, that is entirely the physician’s choice to make. You cannot get them without a prescription. Although I guess you can ignore the doctor if they tell you to take them. But if you don’t trust your doctor, get another doctor.
Can you explain the E. coli point a little more?
Is it that because it’s hard to kill, it’s a good indicator of the initial contamination, meaning it’s essentially stickier than other bacteria and leaves a longer record that there was contamination?
Because otherwise being hard to kill makes it seem like it would be a bad indicator to me, in that it would return a lot of false positives (though maybe that’s the goal in this case).
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I work at a bakery. The number of people who ask for half a loaf of bread (normal to buy in this area, but they’re not pre-cut), then get upset when I pick up a whole loaf so I can cut half off is mind blowing to me. I’m also not a native speaker and autistic, so I’m wary of being inadvertently way too rude if I comment on it.
A lot of the IT guys I know have little to no knowledge of mechanical stuff. Learn to fix your car
I don’t have a car
My car is electric. The repairs I’ve done to it have required almost zero car-fixing-skills.
Could you please go into detail?
Apart from tire changes, electric cars have few typical car problems.
There’s no oil to change, a lot of the braking is regenerative so the brakes last a LONG time, they have very few pumps, hoses, filters and pipes just cables that don’t really wear out. No cam belts or spark plugs.
Basically all I do is swap the pollen filter and wiper blades. There’s an occasional brake fluid check (not really a DIY thing for me) and I’ve had damages (busted mirror, broken charging cable).
I’ve also done a battery swap myself, which does require a garage, but only because you can’t lift the thing by hand.
Which car is it? How many km on the odometer?
Don’t brake in curves, whether you have a car or bike. Especially in slippery conditions.
More fun fact than subject…will file this one under ‘safe vehicle handling’
Oh most people can’t drive. Recently read an article 90% of drivers overestimate themselves. I know I’m above average but by far not a good driver. I still try to become better.
For sure. I’ve done several high level driving courses for work. TL;Dr drive slower, increase follow distance. You may arrive 30 seconds late but it would eliminate the chance of so many accidents. Learning to ride a motorbike made my driving way better too.
You may arrive 30 seconds late
I’d even doubt that. If you take an average and factor in that you might at one time have a crash due to your shitty driving, you’ll always arrive infinitely faster.
Learning to ride a motorbike made my driving way better too.
Oh there’s a good video I’d recommend about cornering on a bike: you’re leaning the wrong way by F9
