It's really easy to think that people are smart and responsible in general. But the more people you meet, the more you realize that we're barely holding it together. Life is just brimming with facepalms deep fried in stupidity. It's an absolute miracle that most of us can manage to hold down a job, feed ourselves, and not just sit around all day hitting ourselves with hammers. So go on and expose yourself to the gamma rays of facepalming, mystifying dumbness.
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Unfortunately a reality of being human is that there will come various times when your judgment is seemingly chucked right out the window. Hopefully, when this happens you don't find yourself in a position of power where you're being held responsible for the very health of a business. Or, maybe if you've already suffered a self-created business blunder of your own, then these fails will make you feel a bit better about whatever cringe from the past keeps you up at night.
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We all like to think of ourselves as basically intelligent people. Does that mean that we're completely right about everything all the time? No, not really. We have the capacity to be right about most things, but the reality of knowing things is that it takes a lot of research. Why be totally correct when with a lot less effort we can be technically accurate and not incorrect? Empirical accuracy takes a second seat to the convenience of technically correct cleverness.
Seriously, what was this guy on about? He goes out of his way to call the collections department at his water company, and then goes on an inspired riff about how he's definitely not using water, but also managed to take showers and use the toilet. Buddy, you did yourself in on whatever money-saving scam that you were trying to carry out, right there. I just wonder what was racing through his mind when he realized (hopefully) that he was not about to get any money knocked off his water bill.
We've all had our run-ins with people that are in glaring need of guidance in this world. It's as if they managed to fall through the cracks when it comes to every bit of common sense. Well, some people hit their breaking points when it comes to the amount of pure and unadulterated ignorance that they'll put up with. From there, it can be a game of trying to call someone out for being clueless, but not wanting to be completely transparent in the process.
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Hopefully at least someone involved in these wild series of conversations felt nothing short of immense gratitude over the fact that their business wasn't completely destroyed by a user that had the wherewithal to try out the password assigned to every user. It sounds like the company got by purely because nobody ever honestly thought that the password could be so obvious. Somehow, that whole approach to security seems like it can work sometimes. Just a bit of a gamble. For another ridiculous tech support tale check out the time that a customer thought that the internet runs on magic.
Everyone in the service industry has at one point had to deal with ridiculous customer demands. Whether that's demanding exactly a pound of wings and getting less wings or rudely demanding no ice and getting less than that, clueless customers have a virtuosic way of asking for something stupid or impossible, then being furious after getting what they want.
If you knew anyone who did even one thing an 8 year old does on a regular basis, you'd kick them out of your friend group instantly. A grown man who thirsts for bleach and poops his pants when he doesn't get mac and cheese? It's no wonder "childish" is an insult for adults. Kids are just weird and dumb people. We know, because we remember.
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Dad jokes. Are the good? Are they funny even in the slightest? Do they have literally any value whatsoever? Dads sure seem to think so. The torrent of dumb puns and literalisms spilling forth from a dad when he's really on fire is something to behold. Again, not something exactly great to behold. But definitely something to behold.
Some buildings are horrible to look at and other building decisions are just weird, bad and dumb. And then there's the kind of architecture that can actually destroy things and hurt people. Tumblr gets into the interesting work of Rafael Vinoly. For another story on artists of chaos, here's the story of the world's most hated elitist artist Anish Kapoor and his bean.
We scoff when dogs and babies try to eat dice and drink anti-freeze, but the thing is, it's not like they're too far off. There are tons of inedible objects that look like tasty food out there. There are rocks that look like cake, mops that look like soup and entire cliffsides that look like delectable steak dinners. May our consciences guide us away from this tempting stuff that looks like food but isn't.
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Our hearts really go out to anyone who has to work a customer service gig in the technology industry. You end up encountering all kinds of hopelessly clueless individuals when you work tech support. Seriously, it's a wonder that these people have made it as far as they have in an era that's basically reliant on technology. If this quick tech support tale got you going, check out some more moments of technological gore over here.
It wasn't this customer's fault for getting duped into being sold a nonexistent hotel room. They didn't have much control over that. That said, she could have gotten less combative with the only person trying to help her. In the end, she had to accept the reality of her situation. For some more drama from the world of hotel management, here's a hotel guest who refused to be reasonable and got kicked out.
Human beings are problem solvers. But sometimes when we're designing a solution for one thing, our design failure results in a brand new problem. With something as simple as word placement or overzealous design, a sign for a window company can turn into a 40 foot long wiener. Anyway, some design fails deserve some blame.
You've really got to hand it to the employees that are immersed in the grueling world of tech support. So many of them actually possess the patience of saints. I mean, how many calls can you realistically take from outrageously clueless customers before you just up and look for a new gig? I don't know, man. In this wonderful scenario we have a customer who seemed to believe that the internet runs on magic. Oh well, learn something new everyday. For another tech support tale check out this story about a man who assumed that his computer would run during a power outage.
If there's one major takeaway from this tech support tale it's that just because you can build a PC doesn't necessarily mean that you know how the computer works. One can only begin to imagine the amount of hot flashes of embarrassment that this dude must've been bogged down by after realizing that he'd literally engineered the downfall of his cheap brand name computer. Like, he literally just created destruction where there otherwise would've been none to have been had. Oh well. You live and you learn. For another ridiculous tech support tale, check out this CEO who thought his computer had been hacked, and then proceeded to learn how a computer works.
