# What’s an innocent or common misconception about your profession or your hobby that just drives you up the wall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 14, 2023, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496 "2023-06-14T14:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/241 "2023-06-21T02:09:35Z")
I did fine with calculus, and both understood and enjoyed it first time through. But i got stuck on the same thing when i hit “wedge products” in some math class in college. I could do the mechanics, but has absolutely no intuition, and gave up. (I still got a math degree, but took classes in other stuff.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/242 "2023-06-21T02:19:52Z")
Deleted; wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/243 "2023-06-21T02:22:11Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I scratch my head, wondering how they could have possibly gotten through engineering school. Q: What do you call someone who graduated at the bottom of the class in medical school? A: Doctor. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/244 "2023-06-21T02:35:05Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I did fine with calculus, and both understood and enjoyed it first time through. But i got stuck on the same thing when i hit “wedge products” in some math class in college. I could do the mechanics, but has absolutely no intuition, and gave up. (I still got a math degree, but took classes in other stuff.) Those are _used_ in calculus, at least multi-variable calculus, as well as geometry, but are defined via Linear Algebra. So it is a matter of juggling prerequisites around. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/245 "2023-06-21T02:56:16Z")
This thread has kind of ventured onto the moor. The weird dudes at the bar said we should stick to the path. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/246 "2023-06-21T03:21:21Z")
Your can calculate the shortest path with calculus. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/247 "2023-06-21T03:37:12Z")
Getting back to the OP, friends and relations don’t really understand what I do, so they never ask me to do a will for them. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/248 "2023-06-21T13:30:09Z")
I’ve coached adults with disabilities who pick up trash on city sidewalks for twenty years. You wouldn’t believe the stigma attached to their job. Dozens of people each day ask me if they’re on a work release program from the prisons. I explain to them in suitably affable ways that the team members are not felons. We train them extensively to do the job with management personally training them on techniques, customer service, equipment maintenance and legalities involved. The team members make a lot of money doing it too. They’re so into it that when they get placed with companies six months later they’re reluctant to leave but it’s for their own good. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/249 "2023-06-21T15:21:10Z")
Fan of yours here. Your hard work comes through on your videos. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496/250 "2023-06-21T21:17:33Z")
I was a legal secretary. On several occasions, clients would call to speak with me and try to get me to give them legal advice, and in this way avoid paying a lawyer’s bill. I was and am in no way knowledgeable about law, and even if I was, it would be courting malpractice to advise them. I knew about how to write and FedEx letters and packages of documents, and to scan them into a document control system. That’s what a _secretary_ does, bozo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-an-innocent-or-common-misconception-about-your-profession-or-your-hobby-that-just-drives-you-up-the-wall/985496.md?page=12)