# What is obvious in your profession that others may not know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290 "2019-08-27T02:45:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/141 "2019-08-30T17:10:43Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > Do people carry blankets in their cars? > > Maybe if you live in Minnesota? I do, and I live in New York. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/142 "2019-08-30T19:10:51Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Whats the difference between a fiddle and a violin? The short answer is “none”. Violinists play more technically and are generally associated with classical styles of music. Fiddlers tend to play more freely and are associated with more “folky” styles. Violinists tend to prefer non-metal strings while fiddlers prefer metal. The instrument itself is the same. > [@Railer13](#): > > Having a title of bank vice-president generally doesn’t mean shit. Having been one, I can attest to that! The joke was that one couldn’t walk in a bank and swing a cat by the tail without hitting 6 VP’s. > [@sitchensis](#): > > You’re still probably making 100 thousand a year and are in charge of a small chunk of the operation. But you’re right that there are hundreds of vice presidents and very few of them would report directly to the boss. Not when I was in banking. I was a project manager with a VP title, as were my peers. We did not make anywhere near $100k (in those dollars or today’s)and were only “in charge of” our project. Banks liked to give title promotions in lieu of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/143 "2019-08-30T19:14:58Z")
Not my profession, but : “This musical piece is slow. Must be easy to play.” :rolleyes: Conversely, not all fast pieces are difficult to play. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/144 "2019-08-30T19:18:27Z")
Teacher here: 1. Standardized tests are useless and are only there to set kids up for failure. The newest test where I live is outrageously cheap and difficult. Lots of “best” or “most likely” type questions. 2. Teachers can do little to help children of neglect and even suspected abuse. 3. We really do have to buy many of our supplies out of our salary. School spending is strictly audited and monitored by outside companies in order to report publicly how money is spent. Very little is allocated to supplies or anything. 4. None of the lottery money comes to us, really. Well, it does, but they moved money out of the schools and replaced it with lottery money. John Oliver did a piece on this one. Those “900 million dollars to schools this year” signs are fraudulent. > [@Scumpup](#): > > Your child’s school teachers know, possibly better than you do, how your child acts when you aren’t around. That’s why they roll their eyes when you begin a statement with “My child would NEVER…” Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/145 "2019-08-30T20:10:26Z")
Large data statistician: If you look at enough different connections between things, some of them will appear to be amazingly strong and real, even if the data is just random noise. Examples [here](https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations). ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/146 "2019-08-30T20:27:21Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > A little bit of IT, a little bit of programming: > [ul] > [li]I know how to look a lot of things up. I also know the strangest stuff offhand. Which is which is more a function of what I’ve been doing recently than how difficult anything is.[/li][li]Running a fleet of computers with acceptable uptime is a different kind of thing than keeping a single computer on an even keel. You use different technologies which most programmers and hobbyist/small business computer users, no matter how good, haven’t really heard of and would have no experience with.[/li][li]IT doesn’t care about anything unless it impacts them directly or management has told them to care about it.[/li][li]You having shitty security practices impacts IT directly sooner rather than later.[/li][li]In the world of software development, most things are possible, but few things are possible quickly enough to be worthwhile.[/li][li]There’s few things more miserable than having to use a data source with no documentation and limited discoverability.[/li][li]Related to the above, if your database doesn’t have good schema documentation, it’s going to drag you down one way or another. Even if it’s useful right now. _Especially_ if it’s useful right now.[/li][/ul] So much of this rings true. I use to work in a rapid response reporting group back in the day when data was on mainframes, and the software used to extract and manipulate said data was not easy/quick to learn. There was a core of 2 or 3 employees in this group, but we often hired a contractor or two when the load got particularly heavy. And management (not IT smart) never believed us that understanding the data was the biggest obstacle for a new hire in our group getting up to speed. It was like this product called _Intellect_ that allowed someone to get answers to questions written in plain English. The problem was that it was always give you “an” answer. It just wasn’t always the _right_ answer. You had to understand the data to correctly formulate the question to get the answer you really wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/147 "2019-08-30T21:31:48Z")
If I’ve learned anything in my current career that drives me crazy it’s this: “No one in the financial services industry is working for YOU.” ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/148 "2019-08-30T23:20:58Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > You have to respect the chemicals. You just have to. Under no circumstances will they respect you. They will just do what they do. The situation is similar with electricity. Follow the rules & everything will be fine. If you don’t follow the rules, you can expect that the situation will not be fine. > > Just _yesterday_, I caught one of my operators […] long story. I always end these situations with, “You know that I love you… but, you just can’t do these things. It won’t end well.” QFT [Karen Wetterhahn](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn) ---
**Author:** ![wanderer2575](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@wanderer2575](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wanderer2575)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/149 "2019-08-30T23:40:18Z")
If a company fails to pay its payroll taxes, a Responsible Person can be held personally liable for them. It can be decided there is more than one Responsible Person, and they can each be held personally liable for the total amount. And said liability cannot be discharged, even in a personal bankruptcy. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/150 "2019-08-31T00:14:12Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > The Hippocratic Oath is not some legal requirement that doctors must swear to in order to be licensed. It is a custom that most medical schools choose to recite because it is a nice sentiment although many use an updated version anyway. It has no legal standing and doctors are not bound to it. It’s a nice guideline to follow, like the Golden Rule. Doctors routinely violate it (for example, I am NOT giving money to my teachers or teaching their kids for free). > “First, do not harm” is not a part of the original oath but a ban on medical abortion is. Stop telling doctors that we have to abide by our Hippocratic Oath. We have better standards to follow. To expand on this, most medical schools use an oath that can’t even remotely be said to be an “updated version” of the Hippocratic oath. Inspired by it, maybe. But no medical school in the modern era has ever had students recite anything close to the original Hippocratic oath, which entails, among other things, swearing by the Greek gods and promising not to perform surgery. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/151 "2019-08-31T00:16:51Z")
In most types of exams, that lead apron isn’t protecting you. At all. It’s used so we don’t hear you ask “aren’t you going to put that lead apron on me?” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/152 "2019-08-31T02:19:22Z")
This one should be obvious to anyone, but apparently not, judging by the prima donnas I’ve had to deal with in the past. If there is a problem with your order or purchase, and you ask me to take care of it by screaming, pouting, cursing or yelling at me, I will give you the absolute minimum service that I can get away with. If you deal with me in a calm, reasonable manner - even if you’re telling me how unhappy you are, or how badly we screwed up - I am likely to go out of my way to resolve the situation for you, simply out of gratitude that you’re not throwing a temper tantrum. If the problem is relatively minor - a late special order, or a dent in an appliance - we will probably offer you a discount. But at some point, the discount becomes so large that we actually lose money on the sale. At that point, it’s less expensive for us to cancel your order or installation altogether, and give you a full refund. If you preface your demand for a discount or special treatment with “I spend X amount at this store every year”, I’ll assume the next thing you say is a lie, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/153 "2019-08-31T02:49:18Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > I’m a Decision Analyst and my secret is that most people do a really crappy job at making decisions or coming to opinions, even smart people. > > Humans are wired to take the easiest, most available information and extrapolating from that. > > I just read this really cool study where they were teaching judges to be impartial (This is my memory of the study. I’m sure I will err in the details, take this with a grain of salt). They broke the judges into two groups. They both got the same case with the same details. It was about a bar that had committed a health violation. The bar was located at something like 532 45 street. They were asked to determine how much of a fine the bar should pay. In one group the bar was called the 532 bar based on its location. In the other case, it was called the 45th street bar. Guess where the fines averaged out to - One group had fines closer to $500 and the other closer to $50. And these are really intelligent people who have been trained for years on being impartial. > > There’s a million ways that the brain can get confused about what’s important and we generally do a crappy job of sorting out the important stuff. I’m not a Decision Analyst, but I did know this, mostly because one of my favorite books is [Thinking, Fast and Slow](https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1SK2CQE4O0S6K&keywords=thinking+fast+and+slow+by+daniel+kahneman&qid=1567219647&s=gateway&sprefix=thinking+fas%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-4). The anchor effect you describe is just one of many, many ways that human minds get things wrong. (Another example involving judges: at parole hearings they were more likely to rubberstamp-deny parole if they were hungry, more likely to consider the case and grant parole right after lunch.) ---
**Author:** ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/154 "2019-08-31T02:53:05Z")
Fencing coach: [ul] [li]No, taking a few fencing classes won’t get your kid a scholarship to Harvard.[/li][li]Olympic fencers didn’t just take lessons and “learn the moves”. They’re also highly trained athletes in top condition.[/li][li]Qualifying for the Olympics is really, really hard. Taking lessons and Doing Your Best isn’t going to automatically qualify you, because every other competitive fencer out there is also Doing Their Best. If four people (in your weapon) have a Best that’s better than yours, you’re not making the team. Sorry.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/155 "2019-08-31T03:03:00Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > When you all were growing up did your mothers have to nag you to practice or did you just WANT to practice by yourself? > > How do you learn to quickly reach down and change a page on a sheet of music? > > Whats the difference between a fiddle and a violin? I wanted to practice. I came to music a little later in life, and I’m not from a musical family, so it’s something I wanted to do. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/156 "2019-08-31T03:06:30Z")
Having spent about 80% of my working life in jobs that amount to customer service, amen **Slow Moving Vehicle**! If there’s a mistake and you’re nice? I will do everything in my power to to fix it. If there’s a mistake and you’re a dick? I’ll be glad to do the bare minimum. (The corollary? If you are a regular client who is always courteous and pleasant, regardless of whether you are a big spender, you get the hidden perks. The cashiers at one of my regular stores keep a product with a manufacturer coupon in the back for me, just because I’m a regular and polite. The kids at the nearest grocery store - who are really awesome anyway - make sure that I know about their unadvertised sales. I don’t spend huge, but I always admire the new class ring or hairstyle, or ask about them because they are lovely and interesting people, or wave someone ahead of me if I have a full cart and they have three items. I don’t do this because of the long-term benefits, but I don’t mind the benefits!) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Zox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Mr\_Zox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Zox)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/157 "2019-08-31T03:15:06Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Good god, I can’t keep that straight. Don’t get me wrong, I know what debits and credits are, but ask me to journal a number from one account to another, and after I do it I’ll check my work…then probably reverse it. > To make it worse, I make a decent amount of journal entries. I have no problem with the ones that are just muscle memory at this point, but something out of the ordinary I’ll have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. > > For those that don’t know books (as in accounting books) are broken down into accounts so we can see how much money is spent (or received) where. Journal entries take money from one account and put it in another. For example, maybe I purchased something and put it against account X but a few months later I decide that it would make more sense if the purchase was in account Y. A simple journal entry will take care of that. > The issue is that different accounts handle debits and credits differently. So a debit on account X may reduce the account while a debit on account Z might increase it. I know, I know, it’s all about whether the account is an asset or liability, but I still seem to get it wrong more often than I get it right. > Lucky for me, it’s all electronic. No handwritten ledgers. So I catch mistakes right away instead of our accounting firm calling me at the end of the quarter asking me what I why I did something odd. There’s an easy way to remember. First, recall there are 5 kinds of accounts: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity (yeah, you probably were taught there are six kinds. Every textbooks I’ve read says so, and every one of them varies as to what’s the sixth, and every “sixth kind” is a subdivision of one of the five). Now, all you need to remember is the right IDEA: Increase are Debits for Expenses and Assets. That’s all there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/158 "2019-08-31T03:51:10Z")
> [@Mr\_Zox](#): > > There’s an easy way to remember. First, recall there are 5 kinds of accounts: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity (yeah, you probably were taught there are six kinds. Every textbooks I’ve read says so, and every one of them varies as to what’s the sixth, and every “sixth kind” is a subdivision of one of the five). Now, all you need to remember is the right IDEA: Increase are Debits for Expenses and Assets. > > That’s all there is to it. What is the sixth kind? Genuinely curious. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/159 "2019-08-31T04:11:13Z")
I’m always drawing a distinction between Hollywood and reality for non-lawyers. In particular: - most cases never go to trial, but are settled (civil) or pled out (criminal) - most of those cool, dramatic questions on cross examination would be objected to, and the objections sustained, as argumentative, speculative, assuming facts not in evidence, asked and answered, or hearsay - most criminal cases don’t have Buck Rogers hi-tech superscience involved - many lawyers rarely go into courtrooms at all - jury instructions can sometimes be the most important thing about a case, but nobody wants to see them read on the big screen ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290/160 "2019-08-31T05:12:03Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I wanted to practice. I came to music a little later in life, and I’m not from a musical family, so it’s something I wanted to do. My cousin Jill is a music teacher. My aunt said that of all her kids, Jill was the only one who really loved to practice and was self motivated. We are going through that right now with my children. They are almost 11 and nine, and while they like the idea of playing a musical instrument and sometimes it’s just difficult for them to keep motivated to practicing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-obvious-in-your-profession-that-others-may-not-know/839290.md?page=9)