What's an innocent misconception about your hobby/profession that drives you up the wall?
Like for example, how someone thinks because you work in IT you can fix their TV, or how if you're into music you must be able to play any random instrument.
I just like hearing pros rant about about their very niche problems.
Recreational scuba instructor since 2008. People think it's extreme as fuck, and badass and all. It's honestly really Zen. You take long, slow, deep breaths; often wearing a wetsuit or drysuit which reduces the sensory input on the body; you can't talk to anyone else (unless you have a full face mask and comms system/are fluent in sign language); mechanics of sound through water mean that everything is muffled and sounds like it's above you; you're (ideally) neutrally buoyant, so you're drifting through your surroundings.
It made a hell of a lot of sense why this was my career choice when I got an autism diagnosis in 2019.
it sounds nice but being in instructor must be hard. i remember when my mom tried to learn diving and it ended near terribly. thankfully she was with a reputable company who made sure her dive belt was right before they set off. on the descent on her first dive she got lost and instead of surfacing like she should have she just kept going til she was hoisted by the dive belt. according to her and my sister the dive instructor looked like he was going to be sick, understandably so.
That's really fascinating especially because I was in the former group and didn't really think about those aspects of diving. Would love to hear more of your stories/experiences diving - that sounds amazing to me.
I'm trained as a lawyer, which means a lot of people sharing detailed, sometimes deeply personal problems related to a field of law I last thought about seriously twenty years ago, and then at an introductory level and for one semester. The main things I learned in law school are (1) how to look things up, (2) some foundational things about how to interpret and contextualize what I find, and (3) how much tools, templates, boilerplate, and personal relationships are the bread and butter of the actual profession.
Hobbywise, no I cannot build you a credenza or desk for free; I still haven't got around to building my own damn desk.
Yes, you are probably related to royalty, but it is neither verifiable nor special (genealogy).
No, I don't know why I need 30 fountain pens instead of three.
I'm at an advanced level of knitting and crochet. I wear a lot of the things I knit to work and I decorate my office with my crochet.
Almost every single person I met has uttered to me, "This is so good! You should sell these." They assume that 1) I would ever do this for a profit motive and 2) that anyone would even buy my work at the price point I establish.
I just recently finished a sweater vest (link in my profile) that used 8 yarns. The cost of just materials was close to $350. And then I also time my projects, which for torso pieces for me are never fewer than 100 hours. The sweater vest ended up being just shy of 184 hours. So once you consider the cost of labor and expertise, this sweater vest is worth over $2,700 at even minimum wage for the area I live in.
There's absolutely no way I would consider selling my work!
One time I was showing off a cardigan I was done with but wanting to add pockets to, and these teenagers in the knitting group I was in asked if this was for me or for a gift. I jokingly used a snide affect and told them, "Um, haha, no. This is for me. I don't love anybody this much." 😂
I'm a Controls Engineer, from the day I started university in 2015, I've pretty constantly heard the phrase "You're an engineer, figure it out!" Even when it comes to something that is completely unrelated to my field, which is mostly everything.
As a software developer, it's assumed that I'm up to date on all the newest tech trends, and I can accurately inform people on where these trends will be going.
No, AI won't replace you today.
AI is the worst it will ever be today.
It might replace you in the future, but I can't tell you how far from now that future is.
No I don't know when we'll be doing commercial space travel.
No I can't fix your printer.
I'm just here to make sure some numbers appear on a screen when someone asks for them.
Conversely, I work in IT Support and I get asked programming questions far too often... even to the point where I'm asked to fix applications despite not being a dev.
Then again, I basically have to deal with anything that's got a plug on the end. I guess code falls into that category in some peoples' heads.
I'm an amateur stand-up comedian, so people ask me to tell my jokes all the time.
These people ignore the fact that a comedy set is all about the context in which you tell the joke
For a while, I was a burlesque dancer as a fun little side gig. In my daytime life, I'm an accountant.
One day I was talking to someone on a non-work related Slack. I told them I'm an accountant and they asked me where they could find my OnlyFans page. That's the day I learned a lot of SWs tell people that they are accountants. This misconception happens all the time now. I've started saying "I'm an accountant. That's not code for anything. I really am just a regular accountant."
SWs wouldn't need to do this if we treated them better. I get why the community chose accountant as a faux title. It has made me talking about my work very awkward and creepy.
I assume the general accountant workload is both too boring and too confidential to really talk about.. So even though the SW knows next to nothing about accounting, it doesn't matter because almost nobody will ask any follow up questions.
Having known plenty of accountants, my guess is that the job generally pays well and is thoroughly disinteresting. I've never heard a work-related story from an accountant. I've heard about the clients being difficult, the co-workers being terrible or terrific, but never really a story about the work itself.
That probably translates really well to sex work. You can tell stories about clients or co-workers and, devoid of context, it maps cleanly into accounting.
A work related problem in accounting would be really hard to tell to someone not in accounting, since it's so technical. (e.g. Damnit, my cash flows didn't balance because the tax manager shoved in a prior year tax adjustment in the AOCI!!!)
That's why it's common for accountants to marry other accountants - so they can actually share with each other.
I like to go to the gym.
I don't do it for anybody besides myself and not to be or feel more masculine. The reason I enjoy it so much is the sense of progression and constant, small improvement it gives me and it's a great way to clear the head after a full day of working.
Any other effects are very welcome, but they are not per se the reason I go to the gym.
For my career - they always assume that I must be able to help put together personal build sheets for people. I work in IT as support, but I'm definitely not building a PC for free
For my hobby- I'm an artist. The whole concept of "it must be awesome to be able to draw anything" it's not and I can't, I understand the rosy tint, but art is definitely a painful passion for me and many other artists ! It can be a struggle
One of my best friends had the same request but also the audacity to ask if I could decide what parts he should buy given his budget.
I love my friends to death but comparing products, picking good ones and also for them to compatible on a budget someone else set is at least 2-3 days of work.
I cook burgers. A lot. I cook them at parties, graduations, weddings, etc. Won a contest to be on a cooking show; I'm not saying I'm the best, but I know my stuff.
When people assume you're meant to put ketchup on a burger I want to rip my tongue out.
I would never demand it be added to someone's creation; it's the height of rudeness to assume a chef has made a mistake or even misread your preferences without trying what's on offer. Most recipes would be made demonstrably worse by adding ketchup. In many contexts, it would be impolite to insist even if I thought ketchup would help. That said...
Sometimes I just want a damn cheeseburger with American cheese, mustard, ketchup, and tomato. I am not going to apologize, and if necessary, lingua can be delicious. 🤣
Hey, I feel you! I totally get the "I want this specific flavor" [insert food here] and there have been moments where, yes, even I want cheese/mustard/ketchup, too.
Any topping is viable, honestly, with the correct complementing toppings. Peanut butter + dill pickle make an unbelievable combo; hot sauce and marshmallow fluff, excellent; cashews + Swiss cheese, fantastic.
For a wedding I catered I made garlic aioli/Monterrey Jack/deep-fried banana peppers and that was awesome.
For the most history-accurate hamburger, mustard is the only condiment, with onions and pickle being wonderful complements. Ketchup was used to entice kids into eating hamburgers.
I'm a health and social care assistant, mainly I take care of the elderly. Many seem to think the job is 'just wiping backsides', when it's a lot more. It's a job that requires broad knowledge of the body, illnesses and hygiene. It's a thankless job, but one I'm proud of doing.
Without knowing what you’re getting paid, I can tell you it’s not enough. Taking care of the elderly is no joke, and a career that should be held to a higher level of respect. I’m just a caregiver for one man in his 90’s and I’m exhausted at the end of each day.
My hobby is writing. I do it for same reason someone scribbles drawings or plinking a guitar. Yet I can’t say it without people assuming that I publish them or expect them to be any good.
Software developer here. Yes, I do get the usual "Can you fix my printer" questions but those don't bother me so much because usually those are easy things and I don't mind acting like a techie superhero. The questions that do annoy me are when someone says they have an idea for an app and asks if I could make it for them. App dev is not an easy process, even when that's your full-time job. When I try to explain this people either try to convince me it's not that hard (when they can't do it themselves) or they get miffed because they think I'm being lazy or don't want to say outright it's a bad idea.
I used to be a graphic designer. I always get people asking me to snip people out of holiday photos, like ex boyfriends or some girl on the girls trip who they fell out with. I'll do one photo if I like them, but no bloody way am I doing all 200 of your pictures.
Dentist/Orthodontist.
Many patients think they are funny even though they really mean it when they say how my job doesn't require college. How it's more like master - apprentice kind of deal like it was in middle ages.
Others like to show me whole fucking mouth in the middle of a pub. Or kids birthday party.
I'm a facilities engineer. Yes, the guy who fixes the toilet you broke. I make more than most of the middle managers in your office building, and it's a 4 year apprenticeship to get this position. Think of it like a college degree, except working the whole time.
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