Remember to subscribe, for daily top reddit stories. Okay storytime... What is the dumbest
idea you have ever had that actually worked?
In university I was late on an assignment that was supposed to be in my T.A.'s drop
box by noon that day. I didn't manage to get there until almost 3 so I was sure he had
already emptied it.Now, the drop boxes were literal boxes in cubbies with a slot on the
front and a lock on them that prevented them from being pulled out. The rack holding them
was just a basic metal frame with about 5 rows of boxes. My T.A.'s box was somewhere
in the middle of the shelf.So I figured, "I'm late anyways, why not take a chance?" and
slipped my assignment into the box below my T.A.'s box.I got my assignment handed back
a few weeks later than everyone else and it had a note from another T.A. scribbled on
it that said "Looks like this fell into my box by mistake."I got full marks on the assignment.
In college my buddy and I took an investing class and for one of the projects we had a
month to “invest” fake dollars into the stock market and see which team would have
the most money after a month. It was spring semester so we put all of our fake money into
Heinz, thinking there would be a spike in ketchup and mustard sales as the weather got
warmer. The next day, Berkshire Hathaway purchased the entire Heinz company and the professor
accused us of insider trading. We had no idea what we were doing
..Edit2: To clarify, we didn’t actually get in trouble for “insider trading” but
the professor came over to us before the next class and was like “what happened here?”
We explained it and she thought it was funny but said we would definitely be investigated
for insider trading if this was real money
I once faked being sick when I was in middle school and told my mom I had a sore throat
and felt a cold coming on. She took me to the doctor and it turned out that I did, in
fact, have strep throat lol.
In college I was taking a class that required me to purchase an online textbook and workbook
that was registered under your name, basically ensuring that each student would have to buy
a new online copy each semester instead of buying used textbooks. I had a friend who
took this class a semester before me so we came up with the idea to message customer
service and explain that I had recently gotten married (so my last name had changed) and
I legally changed my first name from [my friend’s first name] to [my first name] and I would
need them to change it in their system. It totally worked and the rep even congratulated
my on my marriage.
Back in high school, I stopped by one of my teacher’s rooms after class to ask him some
questions about our homework. When I walked in, I noticed he was grading some of our tests.
Of note, all of his tests were made up of multiple choice, true/false, or matching,
and all of the answers were bubbled in. What I noticed was that instead of using an answer
key to grade, he was just placing a stencil over the paper with the correct bubble punched
out. The stencil wasn’t transparent, so all it showed was whether we bubbled in the
right answer or not. Flash forward to our next test, and I’m stuck on a T/F question.
Knowing how he graded, I figured I’d bubble in both T and F, and if he caught it, it would
be easy enough to claim it was an accident. Well he didn’t catch it, and I used that
trick the rest of the year for a little extra boost on all of his tests.
I used to know a guy who, every week, would order his Saturday night curry for delivery
while sitting in the pub and then walk over the road to the curry house and get it and
himself delivered home. This went n for about 10-12 weeks.One week, we were sitting having
a pint and the owner of the curry house walked in, took his order, and had him picked up
from the pub - he said it was easier for everyone concerned.
At College was at a friends house on the other side of town, was very late and the buses
had stopped so my only way home was to call a cab (this was before Uber). I was also really
hungry so, because I only had about $10, my choice was either get some takeout and walk
for an hour to get home at night, or call a cab and go hungry. Then Eureka! I went in
to the Chinese takeout place and asked for a delivery to my home address and asked for
a ride home. They protested at first but I explained that me hitching a ride was no extra
cost for them. They agreed and I got a free ride home and a Chinese takeout!....Edit 3:
as many of you guessed, this was a long time ago, about 17 years ago in fact. The delivery
guy had some other deliveries in the car so he didn't go out just for me. And yes, i tipped
the guy, but had to run in to my apartment first to get a handful of quarters.
I used a soap bottle as a makeshift sink plunger
Bobcat tire blew during a job. Had another tire, but no jack. Positioned the Bobcat behind
a dump truck. Bobcat then tries to lift the ats end of the dump truck, dump truck hella
heavy, bobcat lifted itself instead, tire changed and back to work.
Put Jesus in as WiFi password in church. It worked
Bet my husband I could fix the dent in the car with a plunger. It worked.Edit: It is
clear I should have used a massive suction dildo instead. TIL
Far from the dumbest working idea in the thread, but I once got an extra day to work on a video
project in high school by coming to class with a video that was just a quarter second
of blackness, eagerly volunteering to go first, then acting confused and scared when the file
"didn't work." The teacher took pity on me and told me to just bring it the following
day, and I got to finish it that evening and still got full credit as if I did it on time.
Breaking into my own house through the Kitchen window using a piece of wire and a wooden
table after I was locked out.
Not my idea but my mom's. I dropped one of my earrings and couldn't find it so she threw
my other earring kn the floor and it happened to land next to the first one.
It probably wouldn't work in this day and age but back when I was young I was tired
of retail and wanted an office job. I just lied my ats off and pulled a total George
Costanza what with friends coached to answer their phones as a business and such. Got hired
as an admin assistance and been steadily moving up since.
We had a noisy rotating rooster weathervane - loud enough to keep people awake on windy
nights, despite having been lubed.So I filled the hole the rooster rotates in with Crisco,
even though people said it was a dumb idea and wouldn't work.Never had to lube it again
because the Crisco didn't break down like other lubes.
Back in the flip phone days, I had dropped mine and the screen stopped working. I could
make and receive calls, but the screen was just completely blank. I put up with it for
a couple of weeks because I couldn't afford a new phone, but one day I had the thought
of "Well, if dropping the phone made the connection loose, maybe the same thing can fix it" and
threw my phone at the ground. I picked it back up and the screen was working............
We were at a friend's house about to cook a roast. It needed to be patted dry with paper
towel, but he was all out. I semi-jokingly suggested using a couple slices of bread.
We all chuckled at the idea. It worked perfectly.
One time I sent a letter to a local address by putting the return address as the address
I wanted it to go to, not putting postage, and dropping it off in a public mailbox. Went
to them return to sender due to insufficient postage.
"Hit the router" Slap
"Thanks"
Was really REALLY desperate to leave past employer after 15 years. Had been applying
and interviewing and striking out. Finally got an interview at a place where (at the
time) I felt, "meh, I am not really sure this is right for me, but anything is better than
where I am at."Instead of prepping for the interview, rehearsing answers, etcetera..I
pulled an "office space." I was cucky, brash, unconcerned, made it seem like I was happy
where I was at and didn't really care if I got the job or not.They called me back the
next week and I waited a week to return their call. Same deal with the second interview.
When they offered me the job, I hemmed and hawed, said I needed to think about it really
hard, and that it was a "big move" for me, etcetera, etcetera
I came back and demanded well over $15,000 above what they were offering in salary. They
accepted.
Using a sewing needle to remove a bit of dirt that was making one of my records skip. Bear
in mind my hands are shaky as hell so it was certainly very tense and there was the danger
of ducking up the whole thing...
I forgot to bring a resume to a job interview, but I had an index card in my bag. I cut the
index card in half and wrote my name, my contact info, and “creative problem solver” in
my best handwriting, and gave a copy of my “business card” to both the interviewers.I
got the job.
This idea could've easily gotten me fired if it went wrong.I was working as art-director
at an animation studio, making videos for clients. One client was especially pesky about
the use of yellow in the background. They wanted it to be that of their logo, which
was this horrible neon-pizz yellow. We advised against it, but after numerous calls we had
to cave and gave a version with that color. They hated it, and asked for a change. What
followed were 12 versions with numerous calls in between tweaking the color over and over.Eventually
I got tired of it and just sent the original version again, I didn't even bother to rename
the file. The client said "this looks exactly the way I wanted, thank you"!How that ever
went right I still have no idea.
When I was younger I got called into HR because I drew a very detailed picture of a pen 15.
It was really really good.The HR meeting happened like a week after I drew it and my only defense
was " I don't recall doing that, do you happen to have the picture? It might jog my memory."
They didn't have it of course because I had it, and because I didn't confess they couldn't
do sheet.Investigation results inconclusive, have a nice day
Our power was out due to a storm. I had a campstove to use for boiling water to make
a coffee pour-thru, but I couldn't use my electric grinder for the coffee beans. I tried
fashioning a mortal and pestle but it was taking too long. So, I put the coffee beans
in a couple of ziplock bags, placed the bag right behind a car tire, then ran over it
back and forth a couple of times to crush the beans. Worked like a charm.*edit to add--
LOL it took reading through a few comments but now I see I wrote "mortal" and not "mortar"!
Wearing a motorcycle helmet while snowblowing. I did it because i missed riding, it kept
my face warm and when snow would fly back at me the visor would protect me
“I'm stuck on a cliff, but if I jump at a really sharp angle at that gravel field,
I could just slide down there and be fine, just like in TV!“
Every time I think about this I am amazed I'm not either flattened by a rock, or impact
against something.Childhood really is just the tutorial level sometimes.
I hated my math teacher and she was making us do a project on patterns even though we
were in seventh grade, so my pattern was a series of increasingly longer sideways pen
15s. She didn’t even notice and I got an A
Got a really long drill bit stuck in a piece of thick wood (butchers block). I tried everything
I could think of to yank it out.My solution that ended up working for me was attaching
the drill bit to a chain, put the chain on my truck, and have a piece of wood kind of
stuck between two branches of a tree. I drove off slowly and it popped right out.Edit: To
the many wondering on how I hooked up the bit to the chain, the drill bit was a long
spade drill bit. The end sticking out of the block was long enough that I could bend into
a little hook. Attached the chain to the hook, bent the hook in a little further, and ta
da. It was now another link in the chain.
Years ago, the foundation of my house would let water in right at the seam of the wall
and hatchway. I decided to dig down so I could seal it from the outside. I got a few feet
down before I couldn’t reach with a shovel. So what did this genius do? I went in head
first and kept digging. But then my arms were getting tired and I decided I should quit.
I’m now doing a handstand in a narrow pit and have no way to back out of it. I live
far enough from neighbors that yelling would do nothing. After a few minutes of coming
to terms with the fact that this is how I die at 28 years old ... I decide I will try
to “walk” up the foundation wall with my hands one last time ... and it worked.It
could have ended quite badly.In the end, it worked ... I was able to seal the issue from
the outside...
When I was young and broke I bought a sofa from a used furniture store. I had no way
to take the sofa home. I went to a used car lot a couple of blocks away and took a truck
for a test drive...
Years ago I remember applying to a bunch of copywriting jobs and feeling frustrated because
I wasn't hearing back from any of the places I was applying. It was especially frustrating
because I was putting in all this time on cover letters and I felt like nobody was even
reading them, so I said, "duck it, I'm gonna write one that is ridiculous, that is more
me." I absolutely thought it was a dumb idea and never imagined that it would work, but
somehow it did.I applied with this cover letter and the subject line "Copywriter:
Will Work for Beer" to a job that I was underqualified for. It managed to catch the eye of the headhunter
for the ad agency and was enough to get me an interview. Shortly after that I was hired
and ended up working there for a few years.However, this probably wouldn't work everywhere, but
it fit the culture of the agency. Plus the job listing said that I would be working for
beer brands as clients and that free beer was a perk of the job.
In my freshman year of college, my grades were really not great. And my parents were
really strict about getting good grades. When my dad asked to see my grades, I panicked
and did the inspect command on the computer where you can change type faces on the screen
to read different words and letters. I changed all of my sheetty grades to good grades. My
dad was so happy that I did “good” my first year of school. He asked me to print
my results. I did, and turns out he had to send them to our car insurance company for
a “good student discount”. Ultimately, I committed insurance fraud by accident. But
I got the discount.
A friend and I once snuck 15 people into a Warped Tour by giving them some bracelets
from a party supply store and clipboards full of paper. Walked up to the side gate and said
we were with Rock The Vote. The security guard waved us right in...
I am very anti-social and don't get along with people, don’t go out and dread to talk
to anyone. School trauma, I guess.So I moved in a house with 9 strangers as flatmates to
force myself to interact with people.So far I enjoyed it living there. I am no longer
afraid of talking to them, met many nice other people that even like me. One dude let me
draw on his face after he came without costume to the Halloween party and was so happy. He
even recognized me a week later, shouted my name and hugged me. Others complimented my
gumshot-wound I made. They really care about what I did and do. They are nice and I like
them.Too Long, Didn't read,: I hate people, moved in with a bunch of them, don’t think
they are so scary anymore......
When I was like 7 years old I was playing in my back garden with those incredibly bouncy
little balls you got, just bouncing them high off the house and letting them bounce randomly
before trying to catch them, as you did.One time I went for this huge throw off the wall
and it bounced crazily off various surfaces so fast I completely lost track of it. So
my 7 year old logic was to stand back in the same place and throw another ball the same
way. I watched it bounce this way and that about 10 times before finally hitting a plant
and coming to a rest in a flower bed. I went over to pull back the foliage and sure enough
there were both balls literally lying touching each other in the mud.At the time I was like
“yep, makes sense...” but over the years since then I’ve often thought about it and
how the hell it worked!
My headphones kept cutting out, so I took a toothpick and scraped the inside of the
headphone jack on my phone. Several clumps of dust fell out, and afterwards the headphones
worked just fine.
If I stop showing coworkers how to use excel, I'll get to do all the easy excel stuff while
simulataneously being patted on the back for doing the hard stuff on the team no one else
good.Basically, unless you want to be super upper management and give your life to your
work- play clueless. Don't let them know you could simplify a report that takes several
days into literally minutes. Shhhhhhhhh, someone else will take the credit and then you'd have
more to do.
Using a pocket knife to skyrim lockpick a door