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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!

This post may include affiliate links.

#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 Report

Final score:
377points
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#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_ Report

Final score:
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#3

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

Final score:
371points
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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

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

Final score:
351points
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#5

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Turning your computer or phone off and on again will fix a solid 70-80% of all problems the device likely has.

BleedingTeal Report

Final score:
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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 Report

Final score:
343points
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#7

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

Final score:
313points
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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.”

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#8

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

Final score:
306points
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#9

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

Final score:
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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.”

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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 Report

Final score:
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#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 Report

Final score:
265points
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#12

The President doesn't control the Economy.

A shocking theory for most people I talk to.

goodnt-guy Report

Final score:
265points
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#13

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

Final score:
265points
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#14

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves The best treatment for a child with anxiety is treating their parent’s anxiety.

mmmnms , Kelly Sikkema Report

Final score:
251points
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#15

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

Final score:
243points
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#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 Report

Final score:
230points
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#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_ Report

Final score:
227points
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#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 Report

Final score:
223points
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#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 Report

Final score:
213points
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#20

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

Final score:
208points
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#21

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Coffee shops spend more on milk than coffee.

hotmesssketch , GC Libraries Creative Tech Lab Report

Final score:
199points
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#22

Children behave differently at home than they do at school.



Seriously, teachers have no reason to lie about your child misbehaving. Logging behavior and initiating a less-than-positive exchange creates more work for us. Why would we lie to create more work for ourselves?

porterlily7 Report

Final score:
193points
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#23

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves I work in live chat support. We can see what you type when you are chatting with us, before you send it.

Springstof , Christian Wiediger Report

Final score:
191points
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#24

Cracking joints does not cause arthritis. And the sound isn't bones cracking it's normally nitrogen gas escaping from your joint cavity.

goldenbored Report

Final score:
188points
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#25

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves An elevator will go up to the top of the hoist instead of crash to the floor in most catastrophic failures due to the counter weights.

mbjb1972 , Andrew Spencer Report

Final score:
185points
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#26

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves If you call 911 for something minor (flu-like symptoms, sprained ankle, etc.) you will usually be sent to the waiting room and triaged like every other walk in. You aren't saving yourself any time and we take great pleasure in watching your face when you realize the toe pain you've had for a week isn't a priority just because you took a ride in the boo boo bus.

On the flip side, depending on the system, EMS providers can do a lot to treat issues. Just because something is serious or even life threatening doesn't mean we load the patient, fire up the sirens, and zoom to the hospital (with a few exceptions like trauma and stroke). Rest assured, the 10-15 minutes we're in the back is being used to treat the problem and (hopefully) have you pretty much fixed by the time you get to the ER. We have a lot of medications and tools to use and it's safer for everyone to do as much as possible in the driveway or parking lot if we can. Please don't pound on the door yelling that we need to go when we're starting IVs, calculating doses, determining if we need advanced airways, etc.

Tl;Dr: EMS works very different than on TV (most of the time).

Wilsonsj90 , Yassine Khalfalli Report

Final score:
178points
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#27

In scoring for film, the orchestra/ensemble actually plays the music live as the movie is played behind them. It is recorded and synced

Edit: should have specified the conductor (who is usually the composer) stands facing the screen and has a small screen in front of them with different colored bars to indicate starting/stopping and pace, as well as other cues and insets. Composers have watched the film beforehand and are often frequent collaborators with certain directors.

anon Report

Final score:
163points
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#28

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves One of my favorite facts about alcohol ads: In the US, nobody is allowed to be shown actually drinking the product. They can only be shown 'enjoying' it in ways that don't involve drinking it – so essentially holding it, pouring it, handing it to a friend, etc

ragecage42 , Taylor Friehl Report

Final score:
162points
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#29

True A.I. is a LONG way away.

I'm a software engineer, and I work with a lot of algorithms. What's billed as "A.I." today isn't quite "Artificial Intelligence", it's just a bunch of advanced algorithms, some of which are capable of 'learning' things in a very strict/narrow scope. In other words, people (specially marketing) seem to use the terms 'machine learning' and 'artificial intelligence' interchangeably, when they shouldn't be. I guess I understand why, *Artificial Intelligence* sounds cooler, but really none of these things can actually make decisions on their own, which is a true benchmark of A.I.

whatissevenbysix Report

Final score:
155points
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#30

"I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do"

Just because I work here it doesnt mean I can change the whole system, pricing or get back previous menu items.

captainbarnaby198 Report

Final score:
155points
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#31

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Most people are not good at detecting lies, and consistently score no better than chance (50/50) when tested. The score goes up slightly when it's someone they know that they're talking to, but not much.

Ironically, most people rate themselves as very good at detecting lies, but they're wrong.

DogsNotHumans , Christin Hume Report

Final score:
152points
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#32

You cannot go from having black hair to silver or platinum blonde in one sitting. It takes multiple and 9 times out of 10, your hair is fried beyond repair by the end of it. Kim Kardashian or whoever you pinned on your pinterest page or Instagram is wearing a wig.

DaemonsAngel Report

Final score:
151points
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#33

Based on the number of calls I get about this a week, it would have to be that the water company does not provide hot water to your house. I just don't understand how people have never heard of or have seen their hot water heater.

Silfeed Report

Final score:
149points
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#34

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves There is no difference between a violin and a fiddle other than how you play it.

videcortuus , Providence Doucet Report

Final score:
145points
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#35

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Not my current field, but when I worked at Starbucks not a lot of people understood that a larger espresso drink does not always = more caffeine. A tall drink has 1 shot, grande has 2, and a venti also has 2, unless it’s iced and then it gets a 3rd shot. So many times customers would order a grande latte and say “you know what, you’d better make that a venti, I can use the extra caffeine” when in fact the larger size is just more diluted with milk. If you are looking for more caffeine, a drip coffee is going to be the most bang for your buck.

Also, this seems really obvious, but a lot of people would get upset when they ordered a flavored coffee and saw that I would put syrup in it. No, coffee beans do not naturally come in caramel, vanilla, toffee nut, raspberry etc. flavor.

babybokchoy1 , Darya Tryfanava Report

Final score:
145points
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#36

The lighter the roast of coffee, generally the more caffeine found within the bean. I know a ton of people who drink dark roast mistakenly thinking they’re getting their morning buzz going. Sorry to break it to you..

IPostUnderThisAlias Report

Final score:
144points
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#37

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Touching your fresh tattoo with your unwashed fingers is bad. It's absurd how many times we have to tell this to people.

goddamnmike , Lucas Lenzi Report

Final score:
133points
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#38

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves When you delete a file from your HD, only the information of how to reach these memory slots coherently is deleted. The raw information remains there until overwriten.

That's why companies (should) destroy their disks on decomission instead of just formatting them.

Dr_Chemiramen , Denny Müller Report

Final score:
124points
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#39

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's,Parkinson,...) starts way before the first symptoms appears.

No one wake up suddenly one day with Alzheimer's. From actual data, it seems that the disease is rampant for 10-15 years before the first symptoms. Some research say that you can start identifying abnormalities 20+ years before the memory loss begin.

And it works for all neurodegenerative diseases AFAIK.

Matrozi , Robina Weermeijer Report

Final score:
123points
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#40

You would think all the heavily relied upon server infrastructures were super secure and highly redundant. Hahhahahahhaha

Takemyhand1980 Report

Final score:
120points
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#41

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves There is a surprising amount of infrastructure under your feet. You’d be surprised how much public utility runs underneath private property. Always call before you dig.

zencanuck , Lisa McIntyre Report

Final score:
114points
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#42

Most PhD programs don't have a fixed timeline in the same way other degree programs do. In other words, unlike undergraduates, most PhD students don't know their expected graduation date until they're almost complete.

So stop asking PhD students when they will be graduating.

mucow Report

Final score:
112points
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#43

I'm a sign language interpreter. This is based off the comments I get from the general hearing population:

1. We do not take care of or help the deaf person. We work for them same as we are working for you.
2. No, I'm not related to this deaf person. I'm not even friends with them.

KLWK Report

Final score:
111points
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#44

When you write to your politician, he won't be reading your letter, he won't be writing the reply .. that's all done by staffers. All he does is "sign here".

horses_for_courses Report

Final score:
103points
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#45

Your eyes and mouth don't stay shut when you're dead. Somebody (me) has to shut them to make a deceased person look more presentable.

MFNoire Report

Final score:
103points
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#46

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves There is no such thing as a perfectly functioning aircraft. Every plane you fly on has a multitude of maintenance issues, just not severe enough to affect safety of flight.

Everything80sFan , Philip Myrtorp Report

Final score:
101points
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#47

When public play structures are being evaluated, the evaluator brings two size paddles, one which is equal to the average size of a newborn's head, and one that equal to the largest average size of a child under 10. They then stick the paddles in all crevices of the play structure. If the smaller one (the head) can get through, the bigger one (body) must also be able to, otherwise the structure won’t pass inspection

itspunbelievable Report

Final score:
90points
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#48

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Most 911 calls an ambulance receives on a daily basis are not remotely close to being emergencies.

mega_lomein_iac , Benjamin Voros Report

Final score:
89points
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#49

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Heartworms are treatable for dogs, but not for cats.

Also, keep on top of your heartworm prevention for your dog; if they get heartworm but you can prove that they've been continually covered (which isn't difficult; the receipts are good enough, and your vet will have them in their database), then the heartworm prevention manufacturer will pay for the treatment.

leprechronic , Ludemeula Fernandes Report

Final score:
87points
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#50

50 Facts That Are So Niche, Only People In Certain Professions Know About Them, As Shared By Professionals Themselves Nominal pipe diameters are not indicative of their actual diameter. So a 1" pipe is rarely actually 1" in either outside or inside diameter.

Why? I have no idea. But if you drill a hole of exact diameter and stick that pipe in there, you're going to have a bad time.

lasteclipse , T K Report

Final score:
79points
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