"If A Knife Is Falling, Let It Fall": People Reveal The Things They Don't Mess With Because Of Past Experiences
As the ancient saying goes, "Experience is the best teacher." Sometimes, though, what we learn through experience is to NEVER do something again because it resulted in a not-so-great outcome.
Recently, Reddit user Ancient-Rub-6987 wanted to hear about those experiences when they asked: "What, due to experience, do you know not to f*** with?"
The thread went viral, getting 9.5K comments. Below are the top, best, and most-often-repeated things that people will never mess with again:
1."People in the middle of a road rage incident. It is amazing how a grown adult can absolutely lose their mind when inside a vehicle."
"The most important thing I have learned is if it's your mistake, you accept it and say sorry. I was on my way to see my mom at the hospital, I was in a hurry, and I broke a car's rearview mirror. Dude was angry, and the first thing I said was, 'It's my mistake, I will pay for damages.' He calmed down. I gave him my number and asked him to send the bill. I thought he wouldn't easily let me go, there's no guarantee that I would pay, right? Dude sent the bill after three days; I paid the amount under a minute after I got his message. Said that I was sorry again for the trouble. Dude sent a message saying thank you."
2."Construction sites. They are one of the most dangerous places to be, so you have to be paying attention the entire time you are on-site."
"As a career safety officer, thank you. Before you even walk into the zone, I am supposed to have you sign off on a briefing that explains all the hazards and safety requirements."
3."Payday loans."
"I did some computer work for a payday loan chain and had to go to around 25 of their stores. The thing I noticed was that they knew most of their customers by name: 'Hi, Mr. Badwithmoney. You're here to pay off last week's loan then take out another loan, again?' These people were paying that company every week just to use their own money. That was about 20–25 years ago. I know there are laws in some places to limit the number of payday loans a person can get during some time period now."
4."If you're traveling, never mess with the locals. I've seen people pick fights with one of the locals, and 10 of his buddies came out from every shop around them."
"In Bali, I saw an Aussie lad throw a drink at a singer in a bar, and the locals literally stomped him into the ground."
5."Food poisoning. If you've ever had it for real, your own personal food safety standards will rise significantly."
"I'm adding polluted water to this. My wife was a slip-and-fall away from dying when she drank polluted water. We had flooding in surrounding areas, and I believe a pipe may have ruptured in the area, causing soil/sediment to seep into the water main.
Long story short, she was thirsty and guzzled a bunch of water from the fridge dispenser (which is filtered, I might add). She got halfway through her cup when she realized the water smelt funny. Cue kidney infection, and she was 34 weeks pregnant, too, so it ended up causing her water to break early and our son to eventually be born premature (he's 4 now and perfectly happy and healthy)."
6."Bodies of water in general. A floaty blew off the back of my boat, and drunk me thought I could dive in and get it. By the time I came up for air, it was 50 yards away, and after swimming in its general direction, I was too far from the boat to swim back. I was rescued by a quick-thinking kayaker. Never again!"
"Agreed. I almost drowned while swimming in shallow water due to a sudden change of weather and waves crashing down on me and riptides pulling me out to sea, flipping me around underwater like a washing machine. I was literally barely taking a tiny breath in between each crashing wave. I remember thinking, That’s it, I’m dying today, and I surrendered and stopped fighting against the tide. That was when the waves pushed me in, and I managed to grab my friend's leg, who was trying to help me. Never underestimated the sea after that, and I appreciate the power it has."
7."Mountainous roads during or after a blizzard. I’ve seen a few people just die from turning corners too fast and hitting oncoming traffic. Bridges freeze and traffic backs up for hours. Seen plenty of cars spinning out on black ice."
"Oh man, I had to drive the pass from Nevada to California one time in my Jeep. The problem was the four-wheel drive in my Jeep wasn’t working at the time, so I just had a two-wheel vehicle. It was snowing, but right after I entered the pass, they shut off traffic coming in, so it was only me, semi truckers, and what has now become a blizzard. I have no idea how I made it out. I was sideways the whole time, just sticking to the snow ruts. I could have easily gone off the edge and died or frozen to death."
8."Swans during mating season. Think about a goose on steroids and three times bigger. They've been known to chase down jet skiers and knock the driver into the water for getting too close to their nests."
"I live on a lake with swans, ducks, and Canada geese. One day, I was in my yard with my big Yellow Lab, and I heard all this commotion at the beach next door. There was a group of boys, about 12 years old, swimming and throwing rocks at the swans! I told them to stop.
Just as I was yelling, the swans started swimming — gliding, like, 90 mph toward them. The boys couldn't get out of the water fast enough! The swans chased them, flapping their big wings, and chasing them right out of the water and up the hill! It was kind of hilarious. Later, they said to me, 'Why didn't your dog help us?' I said, 'Because he's not dumb!' :)"
9."Don't mess with people who cook, deliver, or serve your food."
"Line cook at a higher-end restaurant here. While I agree to a certain extent, we don’t really do f'd up shit to food, but we will put far less effort into your meal if you piss us off. Toast your buns or tortillas a little too long. Undersalt/underdress your food. Put it together sloppily. Just little things that will make your dining experience less than stellar. It’s not much, but knowing that I have the power to give you the best meal you’ll have all month and actively choosing to underwhelm you is a power I’ve grown to appreciate."
10."Tape measures. I ended up with 10 stitches."
"I sliced my thumb open with a tape measure the other day. A guy I was helping was like, 'You're bleeding. What the hell did you cut yourself on?'
IDK. You know how you can get a paper cut with cardboard? It was like that but 10 times worse. No stitches, though, so I'll count myself lucky."
11."Skiing or snowboarding past the out-of-bounds signs."
"Tree wells will end you so fast! Have you seen the video of the skier who happened upon a snowboarder who went head-first into a tree well? The guy got so lucky the skier went the route he did and actually saw the board sticking out. They were able to dig the guy out, but the video is terrifying because you see how dangerous it can be to go off the designated routes."
12."Driving tired. It can be WAAAAAY worse than driving drunk."
"I came within one to two seconds of dying from that one. I could have taken people with me. After that, I put a camper shell on my truck so I would always have a place to stay after the clubs or on long trips. I don't hesitate to use it. It never happened again."
13."Internet trolls. They've literally got nothing better to do with their time and will take you down to a deep, dark trench if you allow them to. In my 20s, I allowed too many of them to wreak havoc on my life, and it took me to some dark places."
"About 10 years ago, I got into an argument with a pro-gun person on an online forum. They tried everything to get me fired from work. When that didn’t work, they threatened to show up at my house."
14."If a knife is falling, let it fall, and don't try to catch it. It's better if the knife gets damaged than if you get hurt yourself."
"I saw another person a few days ago comment: 'A falling knife has no handle.' That is absolutely the mindset to have."
15."Strangers. Flipped off one, he tracked me down and threatened to murder me."
"I had a similar experience in a small town in Vermont. It was 1:00 a.m., and I was getting tailgated by someone flashing their high beams on a small two-lane road, and they refused to pass. So, I flipped them off and kept driving. They proceeded to then drive in front of me, attempted to block the road, and got out of their vehicle. There was enough space to pass their truck on the shoulder, so I just floored it. They punched my window as I passed them, so I killed the lights and drove home by moonlight, no brakes, just downshifting and shitting myself. I had to clean their skin/blood off my car in the morning...but man, people are sketch."
16."Not finishing antibiotics. Just because you feel better doesn't mean you stop taking them."
"And on that note, make sure to take probiotics at the tail end of your antibiotics treatment. I got C. diff after taking strong antibiotics. They kill off the good bacteria in your stomach, and you can get pretty sick. Having C. diff was a miserable experience and is highly contagious. I was hospitalized for a week, and the entire time, the staff avoided me as much as possible since they didn't want to suit up every time they entered my room, so my meals and meds were usually pretty late."
17."As a homeowner that has had a long list of shit to do for a very, very long time, I do not mess around with plumbing or garage doors. No f'ing way. Nuh-uh. Nope."
"Plumbing mistakes can be messy, and very expensive, and even literally shitty. But, it's not generally dangerous (unless you mean gas plumbing, that's one I'll stay the F away from).
Garage door springs can, to my understanding, be outright lethal, though."
18.And lastly, "Hydration. Drink more water. Yes, you."
You can read the original thread on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
