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?

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

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.

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!"

Do you touch hand rails if not absolutely necessary, or not wash your hands when you come home? That sounds disgusting!

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. 😄

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! 😆

"Whoops, hope that wasn't mine"

I miss when paywalls could be trivially bypassed by deleting the overlay

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.

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.

Sometimes it's still possible, but getting rare. Usually you also have to remove overflow: hidden from one of the top tags.

there are so many things that affect how people walk, curious how specific you get or if you're putting people into broad buckets.

When was the last time you saw a production so good you ignored everything except the story?

Oftentimes it's, "This food sucks. I should have just cooked."

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!"

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

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.

This is very helpful!

It's an entertaining game. I work with elderly care so I think I'm pretty good at recognising Parkinson's from someone's walk but yeah other things are harder without talking to someone.

Hm, the last major movie I saw was avatar 3 but I can't watch 3d movies without wondering. First movie that comes to mind is the first gladiator movie. I can see why everyone liked it

"Get a room, you two."

Thank you

I can't drive past a recently felled forest and rate it as a planting site.

I used to plant trees

Same here, and then get really sad when I see the awful sign that says it's going to be yet another warehouse.

I grow trees

Something I can't relate to because I'm hopeless with the back end stuff. I've always search "pay wall remover" to get rid of the pay walls.. And if it still doesn't work, I just find another article to read. I didn't realise that you can just remove it on your own end!

I was reading your post out loud to my partner, and then he explained to me that some bugs are actually good/beneficial. He specifically mentioned GTA where when you get a two star "wanted" rating, police cars are supposed to follow the road rules, and then block you in... But instead, they don't follow the road rules at all!

Yeah, it can be pretty stressful. I will wash my hands as soon as I get home, change clothes, shower, etc. depending on where I have been that day. And never shoes in the house past the entry.

I'm the same. I don't touch hand rails, handles, escalator belts (?). Honestly, of the hundreds and thousands of people who touch them every day, how many of them have not contaminated their hands in some way before touching those surfaces? I can guarantee nearly 100% of them, and a large portion of them won't have washed their hands properly after using the toilet.

My partner is an engineer and is fascinated with that stuff, too! Me... Not so much. 😂 But that is super cool when you know that you contributed to something.

You're an amazing person for doing what you do. It takes strength to not desensitise - I know I would have a hard time not wanting to just go home and be by myself after hearing such horrible things. I'd also fear for my safety going up to people and asking how they are doing.

Thank you for doing what you do. We need more people like you!

Don't we all! 😂 It took me a while to figure out the old Swiffer and Blockbusters commercial were from songs from the 80s or whenever.

Same. I will sometimes think of things like "Might have high blood pressure" or diabetes. I also thought that one of the driver's I had passed the other day may have had mild Parkinsons when I saw their hand shaking as she took her hand off the steering wheel to the signal stick. It's always just a passing thought, and I forget seconds later.

I've no experience in your industry or know anyone in it, but I find it so interesting. Thank you for sharing!

Mildly related (maybe not), I have had friends who recommend certain medical shows to me to watch. I have given them a try, but then I get bogged down by how overdramatised they are with the music, and "Um.. They're not going to revive anyone with those weak compressions."

My partner quietly does the same thing. He's been riding bikes since he was a kid (and still does, except it's bigger and is $$$$). I haven't consistently been riding in years and years, and I'm finally in a position where I have space to store a bike again. However, I have bad knees from gymnastics as a kid, and then years and years of skiing and snowboarding, so I either have to ride on mostly flat trails or get an expensive e-bike...

Thank you so much for the LPT! I'm sure lots of people will find it very helpful. 😊

Been there about two months ago when I had the worst banh mi in the world. I've never made one, but I was sure I could have done better. 🫠

I definitely hear you on that one!

Ouch. I actually haven't come across it very often, but with clips online, it really throws my brain to see the sound and mouth not making the same movement/sound.

My brain is not that high level when tech 😂 But I also used to be a food technologist in a previous life, so I love to reverse engineer food items! My partner is a mechanical engineer and doesn't have a food science mind. We're definitely opposites in that respect. My eyes glaze over when he starts talking engineering. 😅

I hope I haven't driven by you 😂 My dad is a car and heavy machinery mechanic, so I can definitely hear when something is a little off, but as for diagnosing, no chance!

I used to get into my friends car and tell him something sounds wrong and he should look into it.

A month or two later it would fail and it happened so often he asked me to stop pointing things out cause I'm cursing him when I mention it haha

Oh gods. I feel the same when I see people and their kids and dogs. I did a few psychology courses in school years ago, so I have some understanding of behaviour. I feel so bad for the animals and kids because they don't know any better and they are guided by their owners/parents.

I used to stay at a friend's house when I first moved to Victoria and stayed in Melbourne for a few weekends. It started to come out that the mum (my friend) was actually bullying her daughter to tears, and the dad would sometimes join in. They said it was "tough love". I don't speak with her anymore.

Some people will just do what their parents did to them, but it doesn't make it right.

I'm not sure I can guess what your field of work is!

That's so sad. I love trees and they're so important. It's disappointing that money seems to always be such a driver in decision-making. 😢

You're not cursing anything or anyone - tell him you're from the future! 😂

That's the go haha, shame I didn't think of that 10 years ago.

Now days we both have reliable vehicles so it's less chance things are failing on a monthly basis.

He did buy a new car last year and said I'm not allowed to mention anything, then politely asked if I do please let him know though haha

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement! It's an ongoing process, trying to learn to take care of myself while also being a good Samaritan.

Also, I have the utmost respect for people that in any shape or form work with healthcare. Keep up the good work! God knows, we need you, especially after having seen how many of us were incapable of following simple sanitary routines like washing hands, coughing/sneezing into our arms, wearing masks and what have you...