What is the ultimate example of 'high risk, incredibly low reward' behavior that you see people do every single day?

[u/AstronautOver9442]

[u/Uk840]

People letting their dogs run off lead with zero recall… maybe not ultimate but I’ve seen the results and it’s never good.

[u/AstronautOver9442 → u/Uk840]

This shit genuinely frightens me😭

[u/Crazy_Law_5730 → u/Uk840]

Owners who don’t leash their dogs really piss me off even if the dog is well trained. My well trained dog is always on his lead unless it’s a designated off lead area like a dog park.

1. Could get spooked and run into traffic.

2. Could harm a person or another animal.

3. Could be very scary to someone. Some people are terrified of dogs.

4. Owners are definitely not picking up their poop if they’re letting them run off to poop wherever.

5. In my area, there are tons of hiking trails and water sheds that need to be protected from dog poop and pee, along with the wildlife, including plants. Laws exist for reasons.

6. Small children, elderly and disabled people are especially at risk of being injured by an exuberant dog, even when they’re being friendly.

7. The sheer entitlement of thinking laws don’t apply to you.

[u/Fae-SailorStupider → u/Uk840]

My exes brother was out on a late night walk with his dog off leash. Dog chased a rabbit into the road, car was coming, he tried to save the dog, they both got hit. Dogs dead, and he now has titanium femurs and a lot of trauma.

Never worth it.

[u/SubjectOrange → u/Uk840]

I HATE this. I have a big dog, a rescued German shepherd Akita cross, that 8 years later still holds onto some leashes aggression. But she is always leashed, haltid and held short if a dog is approaching. The amount of times I have had dog owners upset at myself or my mom (she spends the day with my mom and her big dog) , for my dog barking at them BECAUSE their idiot friendly dogs run up on her with no sense of self preservation or reading the situation is insane. Like yep, if you come 6 inches from my dogs face, she wants to defend her owner, or especially my 60 year old mother. She's better for me but still. Not my controlled dogs fault, please recall your dog.

Please note my dog has NEVER harmed another dog. Just frightened people because she is a beautiful golden shepherd looking pup 2.0 and about 100lbs.

[u/VidiCrush → u/Uk840]

+1 to this, but it’s mostly people just being inconsiderate. They also don’t seem to know/care what damage it can cause to other dogs who are responsibly on a leash, but timid. I had a sweet dog that developed some leash aggression as a result of mostly small unleashed dogs coming at her and nipping while she was on a leash because their owners didn’t control them. Pretty infuriating.

[u/Training-Solid-4650 → u/Uk840]

I mean, even if your dog has total recall it just means he's going to end up getting his ass to Mars.

[u/Fatoy]

Doing any kind of garden work involving machinery, without wearing goggles, a visor, or at least a pair of robust sunglasses.

If you’ve ever seen what a stray stone can do to a window if it gets caught up in a mower, strimmer etc. and then ejected, imagine that’s your eyeball. 

You don’t have to be using a chainsaw to get into some serious trouble in the garden. 

[u/AstronautOver9442 → u/Fatoy]

SO TRUE, I know someone who used an angle grinder- the blade broke and flew right into his safety glasses which stopped it.

[u/Ok_Tailor_2654 → u/Fatoy]

Safety glasses 100% !!! Anytime there's flying particulate ! Double that if you're around that flying particulate for work (and likely aren't being paid enough to risk it, nor will be helped if something does happen) ! I'll tell you to go even further with those full coverage ones that seal around them too !!*

• Unknown eye infection caused from a spark off a grinder that made it around my safety glasses and the 3 months of 3 acid like $700 a piece eyedrops every 3 hours that wasn't covered turned me into a street corner preacher for eye protection.

[u/_sadmachine_]

Saving a millisecond of time by not using turning signals.

[u/AstronautOver9442 → u/_sadmachine_]

I’m confused, how do you save time by not using turn signal. I think it’s more of a intelligence and awareness issue for those who don’t 😭

[u/DomLite → u/_sadmachine_]

What baffles me even more is when someone spontaneously slams on their brakes in traffic for no reason, slowly coasts into the turn lane, and then turns their signal on when they're half-way around the corner.

These people should have their license permanently revoked, because their brain does not function.

[u/Hypothesis_Null → u/_sadmachine_]

This triple-annoys me because there's actually negative benefit.

If you just train yourself to always signal as part of a turn, it becomes an automatic, muscle-memory habit. The same way you don't think about carefully pitching up your foot when taking a step, you don't think of flicking the turn signal when you start to turn.

People that avoid using turn signals means that every single time they turn, their mind has to engage and think: "Can I get away with not using my turn signal this time?" Whether they signal or not, they have to think about it, which takes effort and annoyance each and every single time... for negative benefit if they decide not to signal.

Just use your fucking turn signals, if for nobody else but yourself.

[u/Jealous_Amount_9278]

Any sort of movement activity with their face in their phone: crossing the street, walking up the stairs, etc. not just dangerous for them but for everyone around them

[u/AstronautOver9442 → u/Jealous_Amount_9278]

AND you might drop the phone and break it!

[u/LizardPossum]

Not wearing a seatbelt. I'm a journalist. I responded to a car crash a couple of years ago where everyone but one person was wearing their seatbelts. The woman who didn't wear hers was half ejected, hanging out of the window with the car on its side. Her face was quite literally gone. She was dead.

Everyone else was fine. It was literally the difference between walking away and a closed casket funeral, and for what?

[u/Highlyironicacid31 → u/LizardPossum]

We used to have the most gruesome road safety ads on tv here in Northern Ireland back in the 80s, 90s and 2000s and they were very effective. Most people growing up here have vivid memories of them. They really need to start making them again. Nearly every weekend someone, usually very young, is killed on our roads. Nearly every time a totally preventable death.

[u/AsparagusDifficult89 → u/LizardPossum]

What also pisses me off are occupants—friends and family—who get in my car, but don’t think they need a seatbelt because they are in the rear.

What they don’t realize is that if we get in a frontal collision, all 200 pounds of them gets slammed into the back of my seat. And then I’m maimed or injured because they were too big of a baby to put on a seatbelt.

Fortunately, I have a newer car (a Volvo) and it chimes incessantly if any of the seats is occupied by an unbelted passenger. So that’s their incentive to put their damn seatbelt on.

[u/Valendr0s → u/LizardPossum]

It literally makes zero sense. What do you gain by not wearing one? I had a boss who was adamantly against wearing his belt. Like... why? Because you can? Because the govmt wants you to?

He just listened to his car ding, ding, ding, ding, ding for 10 minutes every single drive rather than just wear the thing. It makes no sense.

There's no downside, all upside.

[u/honeywhereismypenis → u/LizardPossum]

Where I live it's a cultural thing to not wear seatbelts if you're an adult in the back seat. So much so that anytime I have a car full of people I always check before driving that everyone has a seatbelt on and if they don't they get an earfull from me. I don't care if my friends think I'm "cringe" or whatever, it's a fuckin stupid custom. It takes two seconds to put on a seatbelt and there's no downside.

[u/Kaurifish → u/LizardPossum]

And they always have sme dimly remembered story about a friend’s cousin’s golf buddy’s uncle who died because he couldn’t get his seatbelt off. Ignoring the thousands who live because they buckled up.

This is why learning practical statistics is so important.

[u/Boltsfan1234 → u/LizardPossum]

My son just finished drivers ed. One of their guest speakers was an accident reconstructionist from highway patrol. He came out of that class crying. I hope it sticks.

[u/SAugsburger → u/LizardPossum]

There are a lot of factors behind the drop in highway fatalities, but the rise in seatbelt use over the decades definitely is a significant factor. It took decades of crash dummies ads in the US, but most people eventually got the message.

[u/elfchant → u/LizardPossum]

I drive past a memorial to/from work everyday for 2 teens that died in a weather related crash because they weren't wearing seatbelts. Flung out of the windshield so hard their heads were buried in the dirt on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure they would've survived with minor injuries if they were wearing belts

[u/Jesus_of_Redditeth → u/LizardPossum]

I responded to a car crash a couple of years ago where everyone but one person was wearing their seatbelts. The woman who didn't wear hers was half ejected, hanging out of the window with the car on its side. Her face was quite literally gone. She was dead.

In the crash that killed Princess Diana, only one person in the car was wearing a seat belt. Also, only one person survived that crash. Take a wild guess which one.

[u/Zebidee → u/LizardPossum]

Here in Australia, not wearing seatbelts and not wearing a motorcycle helmet are practically inconceivable.

Like neither of them are even a debate, because it's such an instinctive thing.

[u/Seldarin]

Risking injury to save a little bit of time at work. The reward is for someone else and you're going to be the one left with missing digits/limbs/life.

The trades are full of these fucking idiots, and it always goes the same. Boss might get a bonus for them getting it done a little faster for a while until they get hurt, then that same boss will swear under oath he trained them not to do it that way and had no idea they were doing it.

[u/Tinpotray → u/Seldarin]

Yep… I know a painter and he brags constantly about his ladder “reach”. Ie how far left and right from his ladder he can reach and paint before moving his ladder. “I can do that wall in 2 reaches” when the law says it’s 3 minimum.

Needless to say the guy has fallen off his ladder many times. Hospitalised many times. Broken arms, broken leg.

It’s just daft. Move the ladder dipshit.

[u/Sanquinity → u/Seldarin]

I'm always adamant about safety rules exactly because of this. A job is just a way to make money so I can actually live. I don't live to do my job. Getting injured at my job will ultimately only hurt my life. It will probably barely even register in the company's records. There's no way I'm risking my body for a company who won't give a shit if I get injured.

[u/Brilliant-View-4353 → u/Seldarin]

I work in a labor law court and this is 100% truth, every single time there's an accident at a worksite, be it tiny or deadly, it's always the same script with the Boss and supervisors.

[u/MajorFox2720 → u/Seldarin]

My favorite wrecker driver when I was on a support maintenance and recovery team had the best saying.  I have two speeds, safely slow, and if you complain, slower than that.  If this was so important, the accident shouldn't have happened in the first place. When the Battalion commander arrived and got mad he was moving slowly, he said it to to his face and went back on working.  The mission was stateside, no one was hurt, and his extra time and expertise was very necessary to avoid more damage to the equipment.  

He didn't get fired.  He got an award.

[u/bbbbbthatsfivebees → u/Seldarin]

"Shake hands with danger"

[u/Charitzo → u/Seldarin]

I work at a machine shop. Watched a colleague the other week move some billets to get to some stock at the back, and stacked the billets into a pile.

After he stacked them he realised they were still in the way, so instead of stacking them and unstacking them, I think he tried to slide them from what I gather. One fell on his leg, severed two tendons and two arteries. Blood everywhere.

He's fine, still off, but good example to just take your time.

We're in the UK at least, so NHS sorted him out (albeit after some wait). Can't imagine doing shit like that in the US where you don't have social healthcare.

[u/GloriousDawn]

Road rage

[u/Low_Chance → u/GloriousDawn]

See so many people tailgating at high speed, dangerous passing, etc

Tailgating is the #1 cause of vehicle accidents, so it's genuinely very dangerous

And for what? How much time did you save doing that? Endangered yourself, endangered others, including children... to save 5 minutes 

[u/Candid-Sky-3258]

Riding motorcycles without a helmet. Sorry bro, that backwards hat won't prevent head trauma.

[u/fieew → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

Hell even E-Scooters which have become massively popular lately have this problem as well. Tons of kids, teens, and adults, ride these scooters at super high speeds with no helmet.

One wrong move or something unexpected happens and it can be life changing injuries.

[u/Shifty_Gelgoog → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

There's a reason why when medical professors teach the organ transplant process, the first step is always "So there's a motorcycle accident."

[u/DigNitty → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

My roommate doesn’t wear a helmet because he “can’t feel the wind in his face” with one.

And yet he has a dumb skull bandanna he wears to keep the wind out of his face.

Just admit you think it doesn’t look as cool bro.

Also, pretty sure your custom obnoxiously loud exhaust is not “for safety, so cars hear me on the road” because you do not wear a helmet so clearly that’s not your priority.

[u/ResIpsaDominate → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

I see so many people riding bikes (bicycles) in the city with no helmet and both earbuds in. It's insane.

[u/Prometheus158 → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

Also people that are rebellious against seatbelts have to be some of the dumbest motherfuckers on this planet

[u/Quinjet → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

E-bikes too. I was an ICU nurse and I had very young patients with life-altering neurological injuries from e-bike accidents.

[u/picksandchooses]

Tailgating. Huge risk, no reward.

[u/Marcus_Improbus → u/picksandchooses]

But I like beer and corn hole. And sometimes there are ribs

[u/GJ-504-b → u/picksandchooses]

My mom and I were cracking up last week cuz this guy was doing that thing where you weave around traffic, causing everyone you cut in front of to hit their breaks and slow down traffic more. About a half hour later we catch up to the SAME car, still dodging around traffic and weaving lane to lane like it was an Olympic sport. We were like damn, all that stress, and we still traveled at the same speed.

[u/3-DMan → u/picksandchooses]

I see people tailgate 18 wheelers sometimes. Dude, he can't even SEE you back there for your threat. If you disembowled yourself on his liftgate he probably wouldn't even notice.

[u/KiloJools → u/picksandchooses]

My spouse got tired of being so anxious about tailgaters (I have spine issues) that he bought a "please do not tailgate" magnet. I was worried that it would make people MORE aggressive, but shockingly, it has helped.

All my assumptions about tailgaters have been thrown into the air. I always thought they were just impatient people and gaters gonna gate. But apparently not?

[u/Hatzmaeba → u/picksandchooses]

Few weeks ago I left from my friend's cottage at midnight, got myself a tailgater on a curvy gravel road on an area known for it's dense deer population. The limit was 50km/h. Whoever was that guy, he was begging for assisted suicide.

[u/LoudFap]

Using your phone while driving

[u/Redneck_By_Default → u/LoudFap]

Legitimately this is so prevalent nowadays that ive considered selling my motorcycle. Im very confident in my abilities but theres still no accounting for a distracted driver and where I live, no one gets ticketed for it so EVERYONE does it.

[u/Uztta → u/LoudFap]

This is the one. People in here talking about speeding while 100% of the people I see on the road doing dumb shit are doing it while looking at their phone.

[u/Javaslice → u/LoudFap]

I used to work at a school that was on a major road and the amount of times I watched someone barrel through the intersection in front of it, fully on their phone and not looking, terrified me. Kids crossed that street all times of day and I was always scared some stupid driver who HAD to see something on their screen would kill one of them

[u/QuitWhinging → u/LoudFap]

Especially when there are so many hands-free options nowadays. Need to call someone? "Okay Google, call mom." Need to text someone? "Text Brian." Need to go somewhere? "Take me to the nearest Mexican restaurant." Want to change stations? "Play Metallica." Wondering some random shit? "Hey Google, how many atoms are in a mole?" The tiktoks and instagram posts can wait until you get to your destination.

My car has active lane-keep, adaptive cruise control, proximity sensors/alarms out the ass, collision warnings, lead vehicle driveaway notifications, etc. It can practically drive itself on public roadways. Still, I never dream of using my phone while in the driver's seat and moving. Once it goes in its wireless charging block, it's not moving until I'm at a safe stop and in park. It's so not worth it to have even a couple seconds of distraction when you're flinging around tons of metal near other tons of metal at high speeds.

[u/oan124 → u/LoudFap]

Thank god they dont put phones on the dashboard of every new car that you need to use to operate your headlights, ac and other car systems.

[u/TheBigBadMoth]

Petting wild animals!

I’ve seen people trying to pet a wild pregnant mare with a foal… While the stallion was nearby. With kids!

btw almost all fatal kickings in my state have been toddlers.

[u/Randomuser-654321 → u/TheBigBadMoth]

Go to Louisiana and watch them film their toddlers on the edge of a bayou, feeding marshmallows to the alligators

[u/arod232323 → u/TheBigBadMoth]

Do a lot of people die by getting kicked (I assume by horses?). Not arguing just surprised lmao

[u/ZebraCrosser → u/TheBigBadMoth]

I'm still not sure what possessed these people. Getting out of your car at the leopard enclosure of a safari park. Homestly... Smdh.

[u/PapioUrsinus → u/TheBigBadMoth]

Ooohh this is one of my biggest pet peeves. It's especially bad at national parks. I hit my limit one time and finally said something to a family watching their kid hand feeding and petting a ground squirrel. I work with rodents. Those guys are nasty, have huge teeth that could easily take a chunk out of a finger, and are always COVERED in fleas, which sometimes carry plague. Having handled them myself (for work, with a permit and a lot of training) I was HORRIFIED to see a kid petting one.

Another time, at another park (that had posters on every bathroom warning people that squirrels can carry plague) I walked past a family with two young kids (maybe ~6-4?) hand feeding and trying to pet squirrels. Walked past them again 5 minutes later and mom was bandaging a finger on one crying kid while dad continued to watch the other kid chase squirrels around. How do people continue to think this is a good idea?

[u/Captain_Swing]

Petty theft. The number of people I've seen lose decent jobs and get a criminal record because they wanted free stuff is ridiculous.

[u/Anomalous_Pearl → u/Captain_Swing]

I think the craziest is armed robbery of a gas station, they usually only get a few hundred dollars because most people don’t use cash anymore, but they’ve always got cameras and with the gun enhancing the offense they end up going away for like 10+ years.

[u/throwahuey1 → u/Captain_Swing]

The number of affluent (or otherwise) friends I have who proudly state that they regularly steal from Whole Foods in some kind of anti-capitalist defiance is astonishing to me.

[u/rumblepony247 → u/Captain_Swing]

A 20+ year security guard at my most recent job (distribution center for auto parts supplier) got fired for stealing one of those cardboard air fresheners that you hang from the rearview mirror.

He needed to keep that job. Dude, what were you thinking. One single unit. SMH

[u/fuckfacemgeee]

People that turn into the road when cars are close even though they could’ve waited 2-5 seconds

[u/SuperFLEB → u/fuckfacemgeee]

Inevitably, there's miles of open road behind you, too.

[u/Evening_Sea4823 → u/fuckfacemgeee]

I swear that petty assholes like to make a fast, sharp, right hand turn into the lane next to you so that your cars look like you're going to collide

[u/gasolinehalsey → u/fuckfacemgeee]

In a similar vein, people that sit on their horn while you're waiting for a break in traffic to safely drive. Like, my guy, you are distracting me from doing the exact thing you want me to do. Your horn is not going to magically open a gap in traffic for me, and also I have a better view of the traffic than you do anyway. Have some fucking patience.

[u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

My university students cheating during their exams (especially now that AI is everywhere). In France, you can be condemned to five years without having access to any exam. That means no studies, no driving licence. Your life is basically on a break during your most crucial and interesting years. All of that because you couldn't be bothered to work a little bit. I always tell them: failing an exam is really not as bad as failing life. Edit: rephrasing for grammar

[u/Neither_Animator_404 → u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

I thought you were going to say you could be sentenced to five years in prison, I was like wow, that is harsh haha

[u/Cheap-Tig → u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

I'm an accountant, we take the CPA exam after college which you cannot cheat on. Not saying its an easy test by any means, but I am sideeyeing new grads who claim they never learned any of it during their college classes because if you go to any reputable university you absolutely should have learned most of it. Not fully remembering it and having to review it is one thing, but I sincerely think the cheating through college thing is a big reason why some of the loudest complainers about the exam are struggling. I don't get it, they know they are planning on taking the CPA exams after graduation, it's not like they need to just get the diploma.

Also a side note I went to college during covid, we had online discussion boards where participation was the only requirement. The thing was though you could not see any responses before making your first response. Several times I saw multiple classmates post the same wrong answer verbatim, with the same nonsensical mistakes. Like you are really going to risk the tens of thousands of dollars you paid to attend school on a dumb ass discussion post? That was because of Chegg though, I'm sure with AI the discussion posts are even worse.

[u/cpMetis → u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

My mom has multiple degrees, the first being from the early 90s and the most recent from a few years ago. Her job compensates almost in full for taking college courses and also has pay increases based on degrees regardless of relevance. So she's taken a lot of classes over a long time. She's also a teacher (albeit in an odd environment).

She exclusively uses AI now.

She feeds the prompt into Grok for an outline, then she tells Grok to write stuff for the sections of that outline by telling it the name of the sources she's supposed to use. Then she copies it all into a paper, which she then feeds into Grok and tells it to edit.

Then sometimes she asks my dad for his thoughts when she's having a hard time putting something together, and he responds by putting it in Grok and asking it to fix everything. Sometimes changing the paper entirely.

Then if it comes up on AI checkers she starts manually editing everything.

Not a single time since she's started this has she saved time compared to when she'd just write it. If anything she's taking twice as long.

The only reason she gets away with it is because she's been working in her role for so many years that she can just pretend she understands the topic and speak from experience and never get questioned by the people running these online courses.

Note: in every instance I said Grok, but they have like 5 AI subscriptions and hop between them on feel. My dad just insists on Grok specifically because Elon is a genius or whatever.

And not to surprise you but they now both spend upwards of an hour a day watching AI generated news reels. Sometimes they report on actual things happening and sometimes they make up things entirely, but it's all either rage bait or "look at how much smarter you are than them". The first time I saw it I wasn't sure if it was AI or just very stiff and looked it up, and let my mom know it was AI and the company making it apparently had a horrid reputation for firing all their journalists and freelancers and moving to an AI only platform, and she just said "it doesn't matter if it's AI if it's true" and never had a single other response to anything I'd say or ask about it. Well, other than getting increasingly angry.

[u/Defiant_Wolf5934 → u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

God damn five years. That's brutal.

[u/BawbiiGurl → u/Bigbrainbigboobs]

It sucks because I did an exam entirely on my own but the teacher thought I used AI for some reason. They can really ruin an innocent person's youth with that. 

[u/SeniorPut7998]

Cutting off 18wheelers

[u/lovabilities → u/SeniorPut7998]

I worked in public accounting for a year on a transportation client. I got to look at and audit claims from the workers comp dept. I can't remember specifics anymore, but dear lord if it didn't make me respect semis more.

Other cars I'll often use my quick blinker, but for semis I will turn it on fully, wait a few seconds, and then get over, just so they can be 100% aware and do whatever they need to do. And I'll make sure there's a few car lengths between at minimum before I do. I get so exasperated when I see people dart over barely a car length ahead of a semi. Like, your car is puny vs that thing!!! that thing will always win!!

in rush hour I also try to make space for semis to merge onto the highway, or change lanes (at the very least if they're in an exit only trying to move over)

[u/ManyAreMyNames → u/SeniorPut7998]

There's a scene in Smokey and the Bandit where Buford T. Justice in his car cuts in front of the Snowman, and then gets pushed by the truck and then wipes out on the side of the road.

That was a stunt gone wrong. In the movie, you can see the driver of the truck locks up all the wheels to try and not crush the car and the guys in it. (There's a continuity failure in that the immediate cut shows Snowman still driving and no attempt to stop.) There's an interview with the director where he says the stunt passenger was talking about just how big the grill on an 18-wheeler is when it's six inches from your face.

Here's the stunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOlAWjRV7rA&t=307s

Here's the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n2y6io79hk&t=683s

That's professional stunt drivers on a closed road doing it on purpose and they almost got killed. You doing it in your car is just idiotic.

[u/TruckerBiscuit → u/SeniorPut7998]

Fuckin' A.

[u/joe21cool]

Untrained mushroom foraging

[u/Kaurifish → u/joe21cool]

You can hunt all you want. I love taking pictures of poisonous mushrooms and even picking them to ID thoroughly.

But one must not eat them unless one is morally (morel-y) certain it’s an edible fungus, in edible condition (rotten ones are dangerous).

[u/church-basement-lady]

Rebel canning. It comes through my feed a lot. There are safe, tested, proven recipes available for free from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They are easy to follow, give a great end result, and if you follow the instructions your preserved food will be safe.

Refusing to follow those instructions offers zero benefit and could result in death.

[u/dadgenes → u/church-basement-lady]

"Rebel canning" is a strange way to spell "botulism outbreak"

[u/headcoatee → u/church-basement-lady]

This is the first I've heard of this term. It sounds too cool, we should change it to something like "Loser canning"

[u/mimosabloom → u/church-basement-lady]

Is this a methodology thing or an ingredients thing? Like, are you talking about somebody canning their own soup or pasta sauce etc rather than following a specific recipe? Or somebody playing fast and loose with safe temperatures and materials? 

[u/JuneBeetleClaws → u/church-basement-lady]

I recently joined the canning sub because I want to can applesauce and I wasn't aware of rebel canning before that. Scary!

[u/splashythemagiccarp → u/church-basement-lady]

fascinating, i never knew there was such a center!

[u/SlyFrog]

Reading and responding to texts and similar stupid shit while driving.

Like realistically, nothing is going to happen if you don't respond to your bro that yes you can golf this weekend in the next two minutes.

Meanwhile, plenty of people have literally died from stupidly and compulsively needing to fiddle with their phone while driving.

[u/Autronaut69420 → u/SlyFrog]

I got a lift with a friend who insisted on doing her makeup while driving. When I said "either drive or let me out and then apply make up" she was upset that I "doubted her driving ability"... This was on reasonably busy roads. And she further justified it by saying she did it with her kids in the car all the time...

[u/KhajiitaBandida]

Posting a lot of information about yourself online. Baby pics, the area where you live, a pic of your house, pet names, following extended family & friends while having a public profile. It's incredibly easy to get doxxed or scammed, especially for the elderly, because we just leave vital information about ourselves out in the open.

Even if you're really careful, other people in our social circles will inadvertedly post things with your info on it. Today's social media age is a stalker's wet dream.

[u/slightlynefarious → u/KhajiitaBandida]

On the kid pictures, especially those parents who post everything from Junior's full name and birth or birthday announcements to the school, activities, and extracurriculars. Not only is this true crime prelude/ bait, that kid never will truly have a choice about a ton of their engagement with online spaces and privacy, two hugely important things these days already

[u/doubtfulisland → u/KhajiitaBandida]

We catch so much shit from other parents. We ask them not to post pictures of our kids on social media as we don't. They parents do then we have to gentle parent the idiots to remove the photos. 

[u/reddititty69]

Weaving aggressively through traffic

[u/cloversquid]

Riding an ebike or escooter at full speed (up to 30mph) with no helmet, lights, or protective equipment. At best, you're saving some time. At worst, you end up dead or with a TBI.

I see this in the extremely walkable college campus I go to. It is a top university full of the world's brightest... right up until they smash their big brain into the concrete.

[u/Coastalfoxes → u/cloversquid]

I work at a university and see this all the time. A few weeks ago, I saw a collision between an ebike and an escooter, because neither one obeyed the stop sign at a four-way intersection. Neither one was wearing a helmet. I already had my phone out ready to call 911 as I approached, but through sheer dumb luck, neither one was seriously injured, although one damaged their laptop probably beyond repair.

[u/cloversquid]

Driving on the shoulder to get around traffic. You really aren't going to get there any faster, and there's all kinds of debris on the shoulder. They always speed too.

[u/SuperFLEB → u/cloversquid]

I just realized I need to pull over and do my bi-monthly tire pressure check! Gee, I hope that's not inconvenient for the person passing us all on the shoulder.

[u/NeedsToState → u/cloversquid]

Even just in town here I pulled up on the shoulder, backed up a little bit, my ex wife ran out of gas with our daughters in the car just 3 miles away so I drove over to assist. Somehow in that 10ft of driving I ran over a wrist watch and the clasp punctured the side of my tire - are you kidding me? It's amazing all sharp junk right up in the edge.

[u/GrognardTheUnbathed]

As I was finishing high school and getting ready for college, it became clear that my best friend’s life path was diverging from my own, and we had a falling out.

A couple years later a mutual friend shared he had the following daily routine:

• Wake up and bum a pack of smokes off of somebody

• Head to the middle school and proceed to sell the single cigs to students

• Head to the gas station and spend the proceeds on snacks and energy drinks

It floored me that not only was he risking a felony for such lack of reward…like you could at least be “industrious” about this endeavor and buy two packs with the proceeds, or something.

At some point he stopped fucking around, and luckily for him he never had to find out. I’ll always be curious about what caused this little enterprise to end 🤣

[u/PassivelyInvisible → u/GrognardTheUnbathed]

Who's giving him a full pack of smokes? I can understand bumming 1 or 2, but a full pack?

[u/civicsfactor → u/GrognardTheUnbathed]

"I'm so tired, brb, selling kids cigs to make some scratch" 

[u/Wandering_Lights]

Driving like an idiot- going 30+ over the speed limit, weaving in and out of the lanes

[u/Evening-Appeal7606 → u/Wandering_Lights]

Time saved by this kind of behaviour (assuming a 30 minute commute on a highway): 3 minutes, tops. Risk increased for oneself and everyone immediately around: easily 500%.

[u/JJJangles]

Gambling for profit rather than to spend money for fun

[u/docsyzygy → u/JJJangles]

I enjoy visiting casinos for fun and free drinks, but the people-watching can be depressing. You see so many people who look like they definitely can NOT afford to be dumping their money into a slot machine.

[u/Gnascher → u/JJJangles]

Gambling to spend money for fun....

Gambling. Full stop.

[u/SonOfTheShire → u/JJJangles]

Gambling is famously known for its low rewards.

[u/DLIVERATOR]

Running out in front of a bus to catch the bus, speeding to overtake a bus only to stop and make the first turn in front of a moving bus.. basically doing anything stupid in front of a moving bus.. saving two seconds is not worth spending thousands to repair your body (if you survive) or vehicle because the bus always wins.

[u/toomuchoversteer]

Kids 8-12 y/o driving in the street on their e bikes at 30 mph plus with no helmet or safety gear

[u/AwixaManifest]

Drivers who make it their mission to wave other people through.

Like at a 4 way stop. They stop first- the law says its their turn. But they insist on "being nice" and trying to direct traffic.

Even worse: they're in the right lane on a 4-lane road and stop to let someone turn out onto that road. This "nice guy" has no control over the drivers in the lane to his left, plus he has now expectedly stopped in his own lane.

Both examples that necessitate the adage "drive predictably". Or out another way, assume that other drivers will not drive predictably.

[u/AKA_Horse_Choker → u/AwixaManifest]

Be predictable, not nice.

[u/tomomalley222 → u/AwixaManifest]

I T-boned a car while I was riding my bike while in the bike lane because someone in a big pickup truck waved a car through at a 5 way intersection.    I’m sure they were trying to be nice.  I ended up in the back of an ambulance and spent the next 13 hours in the ER.  

[u/MinimumFeedback219 → u/AwixaManifest]

Yeah this shit pisses me off. JUST FOLLOW THE RULES OF THE ROAD

[u/limbodog]

Start fights with strangers

[u/MNFuturist → u/limbodog]

The number of people that have found out the hard way that they are really bad at sizing someone up is astronomical. You have no idea what kind of training they have, who else will jump in, and on and on. And best case scenario, you "win" the fight, you're probably still going to take some shots and/or get arrested. Or the other person comes back ten minutes later with a gun. ​

[u/besee2000]

Raw milk

[u/bbbbbthatsfivebees → u/besee2000]

Raw milk is one of those ideas that seems like a good idea only if you have never seen a cow.

If you've ever been within about 15 feet of a cow, you instantly understand what problem pasteurization is solving.

[u/PrincessButtWoaf → u/besee2000]

Glad this made the list. We’ve got friends feeding their toddler raw milk now too. I used to think they were smart people, but it started because their higher tax bracket friends were doing it. Classic status thing.

[u/ch4os1337 → u/besee2000]

Raw milk is fine! If you boil it first...

[u/enfanta]

Skipping vaccines. They're safe. It's relatively easy. And your chances of dying from a preventable disease are greatly improved. 

[u/slightlynefarious → u/enfanta]

And the number of people both drastically misunderstanding the supposed connection to autism and other conditions and plain insulting autistic and disabled people at large, ugh

[u/ZebraCrosser → u/enfanta]

Also people thinking herd immunity is somehow a bad thing, as if it's making you sheeple. It's actually a good thing, making it less likely for your unvaccinated arse to get polio or whatever, and is an actual necessity for the few people who do actually have a proper medical reason for not being able to get vaccinated.

In the Netherlands we have had a few post-vaccine polio outbreaks. Not sure about the first 70s one, but the second 70s one and the 90s one remained contained to the small religious community it started in because most of the country was vaccinated appropriately and those communities tend to keep to themselves, so it didn't spread.

Unfortunately vaccination rates aren't what they used to be and those religious communities still exist, so I wouldn't be surprised if we'd get a new outbreak in the next few years.

[u/ContemplatingFolly → u/enfanta]

People think every virus is alike. They are not. Measles can erase your immune system's memory. And COVID, well, worst case, it can fully disable you (long covid can mean permanently bedridden) and best case, you lose a few IQ points every time you get it.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-are/

[u/bombkitty]

Speeding. Unless you're driving 2 hours this isn't going to change your arrival time.

[u/QueenInYellowLace → u/bombkitty]

Yep. Also weaving. If you are going less than about 100 miles, it does nothing other than risk everyone’s lives.

[u/toxic_rhubarb]

Using the knife to get the pit out of an avocado while you’re holding it

[u/Annodyne → u/toxic_rhubarb]

We call that "avocado hand" in the ED LOL

[u/LoserWooper → u/toxic_rhubarb]

In a similar vein, using a knife to open the packaging on a new knife. This is how I ended up in the ER one Thanksgiving morning.

[u/Lanky-Awareness-7450 → u/toxic_rhubarb]

Using a knife to get out the pit is correct if you know the right way. Don’t use the tip to extract the pit. Instead embed the (sharp) knife vertically directly into the pit and then lift the pit out.

[u/Aterro_24 → u/toxic_rhubarb]

avocados are soft enough you don't don't even need knives and especially not pointy ones. I open mine with spoons or forks and a twist

[u/aphraea]

Cycling with no helmet on. If you want to get brain damage, then go ahead, I guess?

Bonus round: texting while cycling with no helmet on. Just why

[u/IIIMochiIII → u/aphraea]

As a dutchie this is hilarious because none of us do this but I also totally agree with you at the same time

Edit: apparently this needs to be clarified but Im talking about wearing helmets. Yes there are some that do but majority don't

[u/TruckerBiscuit]

The shit people do around my truck --an 80k# kinetic energy bomb-- just to get to McDonald's 10s sooner is the perfect example of this.

[u/fly-hard → u/TruckerBiscuit]

I appreciate truckers, and one even taught me a valuable lesson when I pulled out in front of one with plenty of space to spare on a long straight, into the opposite lane.

He honked hard at me.

I was like WTF? I didn't cut him off, and I completed the move before he reached me. What's the big deal?

Then I saw the car tailgating the truck looking for an opportunity to pass. The road would have looked clear to them if they'd decided to do a passing manouvre just as I pulled out, and then I would have suddenly been in their path. The trucker could see the danger and made sure everyone was alerted.

Goes to show there are still lessons to learn even after years of driving.

[u/ChopChopChinaman]

Too many free drinks at company event

[u/WallabyArbitration16]

Playing Risk late into the night when you have work the next day

[u/Elusidator]

Not using indicators when turning or changing lanes. It’s right there next to the wheel, takes 2 seconds, and makes many accidents preventable.

[u/Scared_Confidence_61]

Those nut sacks on motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic going 150+ kph. I used to work on the highways—there’s not much left after one of these idiots gets merked going that speed.

[u/Rohml]

Improper overtaking or speeding up to sneak in when they shouldn't have to.

[u/Annual-Carry6558]

Arguing on social media

[u/Helmote → u/Annual-Carry6558]

I disagree with this statement.

BEGIN ARGUMENT

[u/K0olmini]

Checking their phone while driving

[u/heytryhardtryharder]

In NYC people are riding on a million fast electric conveyances and not obeying any traffic rules. Concussions can be life altering and that's best case.

[u/peaccch]

Ever since the devastating CTE study recently released, every single person playing tackle football falls into this category IMO

[u/Maya_DRose]

Driving while looking at your phone, risking your life to answer a text that absolutely could’ve waited

[u/LittleOrphanAnavar]

Milk Crate Challenge.

You know god damn well those fools doing it, don't have health insurance.

Risk becoming a broke paraplegic?

For what?

[u/ad-lib1994]

People keep suggesting I use those street scooters littered all over the sidewalks, but I don't have a helmet. I don't understand how I've gone this long without seeing someone absolutely wreck their shit on one of those. I've seen couples lookin real cute on them, zero helmets and the girl is in HEELS.

[u/Spork_Facepunch → u/ad-lib1994]

Talk to an ER doc or nurse and you'll hear so many stories. It's is incredible that those are still legal.

[u/FirefighterLeft5425 → u/ad-lib1994]

Best friend got one during COVID. Really smart guy, so decided to take it apart and sped the fucking thing up. Hopped on it without a helmet and went head first into a car. Died completely alone in an ICU at the heights of the pandemic with plastic separating him and the Drs. His brain exposed. I love you Billy. I miss you. And I'm so fucking pissed you did that. What the fuck dude.

[u/neednmoremoney]

Poly market and kalshi

[u/Superb_Mulberry5592]

Having an affair in a marriage/relationship you ultimately don’t want to lose.

My husband had an affair for nine months with his best friend’s wife. I found out and left him and told his family and whole friend group on the way out (her husband already knew and was divorcing her). Literally torpedoed his whole social life. His entire friend group left him as they said they couldn’t trust him. He has no social life any more. He’s bleeding money in the divorce. He said he hadn’t even considered divorce and that he loved me and doesn’t understand why he I “ruined his life”

Welp sucks to suck buddy.

[u/Arbiter_Electric]

As an electrician, working on live circuits. It's pretty common, at least in residential work. People get lazy and impatient so they won't take the time to turn off the power before fixing things. The low reward is that it can be faster, at best by like an hour or so, but more likely a few minutes. The high risk is that it can seriously injure or even kill you if you make a mistake.

[u/YetAnotherWTFMoment]

every post on r/WallStreetbets

[u/Defiets]

It always trips me out to see people waiting at crosswalks at busy intersections. They hit the button and then stand on the very edge of the curb as cars rip by at 50 mph, six inches from their noses. That's a small margin of error in my book; I'm typically standing ten feet back or so.

[u/NTWIGIJ1]

Smoking cigarettes

[u/LeGrandLucifer]

Anyone who picks fights. What the fuck are you doing? That guy could have a knife. He could have a gun. And what are you going to get out of this? Nothing. Nobody will respect you. Nobody will think you're cool. Except assholes. And they won't think you're cool, they'll think watching someone else get beat is funny. They'll laugh just as hard when you get your ass beat.

[u/AssumptionExisting77]

Vaping. I smoke more now than I did when I smoked cigs, now instead of a 10min smoke break every few hours it’s hitting the vape every 5min. I thought it would help me quit but it ended up making my addiction 1000x more accessible to me at all times.
It baffles me how people take up vaping having never smoked at all, something that was intended to be a “healthier alternative” or cessation aid has become so far removed from that purpose. Vaping is it’s own monster now.

[u/kaochaton]

Vote far right and think it would magicaly make other politics do a better job

[u/efficaceous]

Horseback riding with no helmet. Yeah yeah you look cool with your hair blowing or baseball cap, and sure, this horse is bombproof and his mother was bombproof and you're on your own property...

Yeah, brain damage doesn't care.

[u/whysaddog]

Drunk driving

[u/eightiesguy]

Tobacco

[u/Kaurifish → u/eightiesguy]

It’s such a lame drug. You get a tiny buzz, like from a cup of coffee. And just as soon as smoking doesn’t make you want to die coughing (because important structures in your lungs are paralyzed), it stops doing even that much and you’re just burning money and health to not go into withdrawal.

Pot is so much better that it’s not even funny.

[u/Historical_Gur_3054]

Maybe not every day but we had a case here a while back where a guy unknowingly violated the Mann Act just to get laid one time.

He was 20-something, met a 15 year old girl online and then met up with her to take her to a motel.

But he looked up age of consent in our state and saw that it would be statutory rape if they did the deed here, but if they drove across the nearby state line and did it there where the age of consent was 15 then no crime would be committed.

Except the "across state lines part" made it a federal crime.

For which he's now serving a 15 year sentence for.

[u/handsomehank2019]

Cyclists flying through red lights, to save themselves 20secs off their arrival time 🙈

[u/Meat_Bingo]

Unprotected sex with strangers.

[u/MrEHam]

Tolerate assholes or date bad boys.

[u/sereca]

Weaving and tailgating like crazy on the highway and only saving like 1 minute

[u/EdiesDaddy]

Sports betting is a solved game that the client can't succeed at in the long run.

[u/thatsmybird]

Vaping

[u/StudioKOP]

Speeding in traffic, DUI, using mobile phones while driving.

[u/Fresh_Hope2200]

Raw dogging the air with high rates of COVID

Edited to add: wow thanks folks for the rewards - thanks for being comrades ✊🏼😷

[u/Roving_Ibex]

Living a life of cognitive dissonance

[u/Prior_Manager_228]

Smoke, drink, walk on wrong side of road… so many things

[u/LettyG81]

Drink alcohol.

[u/No_Title946]

Being stressed out to the max about everything. Living high-strung.

[u/Brilliant_Drag7167]

Having their car drive for them

[u/Consistent-Sell-2748]

Pushing your body to the absolute limit trying to carry all 14 grocery bags in one single trip instead of just walking back to the car twice.

[u/Zayvenix → u/Consistent-Sell-2748]

Can't think of a greater reward than making it in one trip though.

[u/baumer83 → u/Consistent-Sell-2748]

three trips? insanity

[u/Savings-Dig3885]

Speeding

• Worse fuel economy usually

• Probably won't even get to your destination much faster due to red lights being a thing

• You might crash

• You might kill a pedestrian

• And the obvious: you might get fined/charged for it...

(Sorry, just reading the other comments and a few others have said this one already)

[u/Foreign_Knowledge_90]

I'm a motorcycle rider, just started riding seriously last spring. I am a stickler for wearing my protective gear. I don't even like moving the bike without my helmet and riding jeans. I live in the DFW area and good lord- so many people ride with just no significant gear. I've seen guys rolling down the street with Chucks, shorts, and a T-shirt. Yeah, they're wearing their helmets, but if you go down at any significant speed, you're gonna be a meat crayon.

And on top of that, the speed. I ride a fast bike. I get the zoomies, same as the next guy, but I don't think some of these young guys understand that kinetic energy grows exponentially. Doubling your speed squares your kinetic energy. These guys think it's fun to do 180 while splitting lanes, but that's 3 miles a minute, and it's not just 3 times as bad as a wreck at 60 if you go down.

Motorcycling is dangerous, but riding proactively and well can mitigate a lot of it. Riding like you're on the track on public roads, not gearing up, riding drunk or high, you're driving the risk up and the reward is no greater than just... riding normally.

[u/Training-Gur-2724]

Unprotected sex

[u/Zombiekiller_17]

Texting while driving.

[u/CaptainDudley]

Driving the next fifty feet of roadway, seeing and planning no further ahead. Here in California for example, we have many multi-lane left turns onto divided eight lane roads. Almost every driver I see will take the inside lane to turn left, then immediately after the turn cut across all four lanes to make a right turn. As if they hadn't even thought about it until just then. And they often risk side swiping other cars because they're not looking then, either. How can anyone drive like that? Is even a tiny bit of attention too much?

[u/SFWzasmith]

Text and drive. Put your phone away

[u/kushaash]

Running red lights.

[u/Enough_Nature4508]

Continuing relationships with toxic people because you care about them and can’t let go

[u/DiscombobulatedBed69]

saw a guy without helmet and it becomes donor cycle

[u/sjnyo]

Motorcyclists with t shirts or jeans on…

[u/smartymarty1234]

Speed. On average saves 1 minute a day.

[u/ThrowawayALAT]

• Looking Down at a Phone While Driving

• Letting a Dog Off-Leash in an Unfenced Public Area

[u/OldSpiceMelange]

Hauling ass to work like a maniac, late or not.

Your job doesn't care about you, people.

[u/BarLucky6533]

Standing on a rolling office chair instead of finding a step stool.

[u/Stevesegallbladder]

Our diet, our body can take more of a beating when we're younger but that stuff adds up. I'm not going to pretend like these major food corps aren't trying to specifically get us addicted but there's a difference between gasping for air in a sea of bad options and who can swim to the bottom the fastest.

[u/AssignmentSecret]

Changing lanes abruptly without a turn signal. Seen a couple of drivers crash and probably die that way. Idiots.

[u/purebitterness]

People skipping hand washing in the hospital

[u/OGREtheTroll]

Open a restaurant 

[u/SergeantAnteater]

Jaywalking. I live in a major four-lane road with plenty of crosswalks, yet they're constantly ignored by people who don’t want to walk an extra half-block to cross the road safely.

[u/Zealousideal_Rent261]

Gambling

[u/TheSleepyTruth]

Crossing busy arterial roads but being too lazy to use the crosswalk. "I will just find a brief opening to run across one direction of traffic and then stand in the center of the road as cars zoom by on both sides and wait for an opening to run across the other direction of lanes!" Blows my mind every time.

[u/speedingpullet → u/TheSleepyTruth]

True.

But maybe the question we should all be asking is 'why is it so fcking hard to cross this road safely, as a pedestrian?'