I’d like to learn what people in their field think of when they see something good or bad when they’re not working.
I’m a health inspector, so when I am sitting at a table as a customer, I’ll watch people while I’m eating (not purposely staring, but having a look around the place). I recently saw someone swipe their finger under their nose then go to the self serve station to touch about 8 different handles before walking away. Thankfully, I was already done eating.
When I have to walk through the kitchen to the toilets, I take mental notes without meaning to.
As a ex-first responder, unconsciously doing an assessment of someone I’m speaking to (or not) and internally noting how nice and juicy their veins are.
What are some things you come across in your daily life and what do they have you thinking about?
Being trained in behavioral psychology and watching my girlfriend’s sister with her dogs is torture to me.
She’s got a good boi who barks for attention. She gives him attention every fucking time. He’ll be barking away in the corner while we try to talk, and instead of taking him outside or something, she calls him over to her and pets him.
I see this over and over again and think, “It’s no wonder he barks so much, when she reinforces him for it constantly.”
It drives me nuts and honestly makes me not want to go over to her house. I really want to say something, but I don’t want to be that person coming in and giving unsolicited advice to others about how to train their pets. So I just watch it happen over and again and suffer in (bark-filled) silence.
Edit to add: Also, my brother and his kids. This one hurts more for a number of reasons. He complains about how our mom raised us, but then does the same shit with his kids, never connecting the dots. Meanwhile I learned what not to do by watching my mom. Then through education and working in the field, not only have I been vindicated for the way I interact with kids, but I learned lots of new skills that could help the kids learn appropriate behavior while maintaining their self-esteem. But when my brother’s around, he’s all, “I’m their parent and I’ll raise them my way.” Even his own parents-in-law told him, “You listen to Whats_your_reasoning, she knows what she’s talking about.” But no, I’ve got to not do the things I do every day that could help his kids and his life in the long run because he doesn’t want to hear it.
Mechanical engineering. Whenever I see a big piece of tech — say car, plane or any industrial machinery/piping — I think of all the time and effort that went into creating each part of it, from drawing blueprints, modeling, checking national/international standards, choosing materials, running software for calculations, running through different people for approval, assembly, maintenance, etc.
It’s so much work and even more paperwork. I feel we take what we have for granted.
I’m a crane technician and love diagnosing peoples cars by the horrible sounds they make when they drive past me
Among other things I’m an audio editor and producer, and badly-done audio really grates on my brain. When clips have been poorly chopped together, when a character running away from a monster screams the exact same scream twice, when statements are clearly frankenclips made of fuck knows how many different recordings, my brain raises the alarm.
This is especially rough when reality TV competition shows are on. I like Drag Race, for example, but RuPaul is employing some idiots hacking at spools of worn-out tape with rusty knives or something.
“I’m having trouble with this challenge!”
From a behavior therapy perspective, it is a reason I don’t go out many places. I don’t want to see.
Oftentimes it’s, “This food sucks. I should have just cooked.”
I used to sell and fix bikes, now every time I’m out I’m judging people’s choice of bikes.
Not in the “ugh you’re riding a mongoose?” way but the “you need to give that bicycle to a teenager and get a larger one that fits your size, how tall are you? What kind of riding are you expecting to do?” and many other such questions if I strike up a conversation with them.
I want everyone to have a pleasant time while out on their bike. If they don’t have fun, if they are too tired after a ride, or in pain, they won’t want to ride more, and then less people are out not driving cars.
Lpt: (in general) when riding a bicycle, you want the top section of your leg (femur) to be no higher than parallel to the ground at the top of the pedal stroke, and you want your leg to be extended, but not fully straight, when at the bottom of the stroke. You can injure your hips, knees, and leg muscles if you ride an incorrectly sized bike for long periods.
Most adult bicycles should be measured from the spot where the pedals go to the frame to the hole where the seat post goes in. If it’s not measured in inches or centimeters, it might have letter sizing, and if it has bone of those, I wouldn’t trust the quality of the bike. These measurements are more of a guide, when in doubt, use the leg position rule.
The type of bike you have will change your experience quite a bit. If you try to take a road bike (super skinny tires, often has ram horn handlebars) on the mountain trail, you’re gonna have a bad time. Mountain bikes are geared for more power, road bikes are more geared for speed. Hybrids have a good balance and make light off-roading possible. Downhill bikes are like mountain bikes but with a steeper angle on the front fork, to give you better handling while, you guessed it, going down a hill.
I die a little inside every time I see an adult riding a child sized bike.
“well the teenager at Walmart said I needed a 26 inch bike for the hiking trails so I got the 26 inch bike” he said, standing at 6ft3 next to a 15 inch frame bike with 26 inch wheels and tires about an inch wide…
And now when I see aluminum construction, I wonder how it’s been done and try to figure out the various extruded pieces they used.
This is very helpful!
I’m a production artist so now I can’t really watch a movie or play a video game or see a billboard or something without wondering how they did a certain thing or if I see a small continuity error or something wasn’t masked out properly. It doesn’t detract from the experience, in fact it adds to it. When I see something that amazes me, I think of how I can recreate that by developing new techniques or using a piece of software I’ve never used before. And, I take a mental note of how a story affected me and what part really affected me and I use that as a reference for my own things to reproduce that genuine feeling I have of wonder, excitement, sadness, or fear.
And, as an artist working in the industry, when I see stuff that other budding artists have done sure I can spot things that could be improved. But, I understand where they’re coming from. I’ve heard a quote that I took to heart “Never criticize, always encourage.” And, so that’s what I try to do.
When was the last time you saw a production so good you ignored everything except the story?
Healthcare professional. Play spot diagnosis from people’s walks and stuff observable from a distance. always keep an eye out for people who look like they need help. Always check people at car accidents are out of the cars and calm before driving on. I do the veins thing too.
there are so many things that affect how people walk, curious how specific you get or if you’re putting people into broad buckets.
Great question!
I’m a parole officer tasked with interviewing defendants awaiting sentencing hearings and typing up pre-sentencing reports in which I give my recommendations to the courts regarding non-incarcerating sentences. As in, would a time-served and/or probationary sentence be appropriate in a particular case and why?
I meet people that seem genuinely sorry for their crimes and people that give zero fucks. I meet people that are awaiting trial for having stolen an apple from a supermarket and people that have raped their own children.
As I stroll about my town on my free time, I cannot stop myself - or my mind - from getting involved when I see people that seem to be having a hard time. I sometimes walk up to them asking how they are doing. Or asking them whether they could do without that last can of beer, or without shooting up that last injection. Or asking them who their social worker is and offering to walk them to the social services office.
Since I started doing this job, I have lost the ability to ignore that which to a lot of people is mere nuisance. Social injustice, addiction, violence of any kind. I have become too sensitive to them, perhaps to my own detriment, since I sometimes receive death threats when I intervene. Hopefully, it’s just the substance or an untrained attitude talking. 😄
I’m a data analyst/software engineer in rocket engine testing.
I get super excited when I see rocket launches in the news or on the Internet.
“Woah that’s so cool!”
“Holy shit! Hardware I touched is on that!”
“Yooooo. Those engines I tested are on the Moon!”
“Whoops, hope that wasn’t mine”
Sic!
Do you often interface directly with the actual hardware on the rocket, or do you rather work with emulators and then pass the software on to some other person that in turn uploads it to the hardware?
This topic is to freaking fascinating to me! 😆
Software engineer (you’ll get a lot of those). Most software has so. many. bugs. I keep a mental list of them and when I see some weird behavior I’ll try to reproduce it. I’ll also judge bad design choices.
But this has very minor impact. I can’t imagine being a health professional in a setting with many people. It must be pretty stressful seeing people being disgusting with public spaces.
My grandma was a nurse and working with kids and never touched hand rails and always washed her hands when she came home.
Do you touch hand rails if not absolutely necessary, or not wash your hands when you come home? That sounds disgusting!
As a software developer I tend to open the development console in my browser to see if I can remove paywalls or if i can identify errors if a site isn’t working
I miss when paywalls could be trivially bypassed by deleting the overlay
Sometimes it’s still possible, but getting rare. Usually you also have to remove
overflow: hiddenfrom one of the top tags.
I always end up figuring out jingles and background music on tv even when I don’t really want to.
