4 Useful Tricks You Can Use In Everyday Life

Sharks are older than trees. I learned that years ago, and while I don’t know if that fact will be useful in everyday life, it’s still fun to know. It always surprises people.

In my decade of writing, researching, and talking with experts, I’ve stumbled across many useful and completely random facts that I’ve saved. Here are the four best that you can use.

began my writing career on a knowledge-sharing platform, where we read and wrote answers to completely random questions. I’ve stumbled across many incredibly surprising stats, some innocent, others not.

How to fix bug problem in a restaurant

Two years ago, my girlfriend was crying desperately into the phone — “P-p-please….please come over.”

It sounded like she was a hostage and needed a ransom. There was a “giant live cockroach” on her kitchen floor. I urged her to just kill it and move on. Eventually, I realized she needed me.

“I’m doing this one time,” I said.

I drove a full 25 minutes just to flush a single roach — which wasn’t even alive. It was on its back, twitching.

I told my pest control guy the story. He looked entirely unsurprised. He smiled and said, “Girlfriends and wives drive most of our business.”

Revulsion is an evolutionary tool. We’re wired to care about sanitation and be repulsed by things that might make us sick. Yet for all our hatred of bugs — we accidentally eat them all the time.

The FDA even allows for a certain level of bug parts in manufactured food — it’s more than you think. But I’ll spare you the details.

A former client, a restaurant executive, told me an unfortunate but highly-believable truth about your food. If your plate comes out with a bug in it and you send it back, cooks often scoop out the bug and send the same plate back. He said, “To be clear, they wouldn’t work for me anymore if I caught them doing that.”

“If this happens to you, pour a bunch of salt in the soup. If it comes back and your food tastes like salt — that’s when you’ll know.”

Raise hell and ask for the manager. Go Mega Karen on them.

How to choosing a side if your life depends on it

Portland’s name was chosen via a coin toss.

Had the coin landed on tails, the city would be known as Boston, Oregon (that isn’t a joke). You’d be surprised by how many enormous decisions have been made with randomizers: Dice rolls, coin tosses, rock-paper-scissors. The next time you flip a coin over who is doing some unsavory deed, remember this: The odds aren’t 50:50.

Stanford researchers used a mechanical coin flipper to study which side the coin tended to land on. Heads didn’t perform better than tails. Tails didn’t perform better than heads. But — one side did perform better: The side that was facing up.

When heads are facing up at the start, there’s a 51% chance of landing on heads. Tails? Same story. A 2% advantage goes to the top side (51% vs 49%).

Flipism is a component of decision theory and suggests that coin-flipping can help when you’re stuck with decisions.

The trick isn’t to choose whatever side it lands on. Start before that, when the coin is in the air: Choose the side you catch yourself hoping it lands on.

But if your life depends on a coin toss — choose the side facing up.

Of thumbs, emperors, and lifted red pickup trucks

There’s a common movie scene of a Roman emperor standing on an elevated platform.

A dirt and blood-covered gladiator looks up, requesting a decision on his downed opponent. Viewers watch as the emperor’s cold eyes hold, until he slowly rolls his thumb down, leading to the killing blow.

In reality, a thumbs down meant mercy or disapproval of the gladiator being killed. They were expensive to train and thus died less than Hollywood depicts. Today, the thumb is very useful in dealing with aggression.

For example, road rage is common here in Florida — especially with large trucks. Giving an aggressive driver the middle finger is an escalation that, at best, leads to no change in behavior. At worst, it leads to violence. Unfortunately, it is extremely common, with 38% of American drivers reported giving rude gestures in the past year, with 56% of traffic accidents caused by aggressive driving and road rage. A traffic cop taught me a very useful trick. If you’d like to make a stronger impression when a driver cuts you off, give them a thumbs down. It neutralizes hostility.

They’ll be more likely to rethink their actions. I’ve had many cars tailgating me, honking, and acting ridiculous. I’ve always taken solace in the fact that, as they passed me, their car was often covered in dents and damage.

Their behavior was a pattern and it was costing them money.

The truth on lying

I was drinking at McDintons, a local Irish pub. There were six of us chatting and a few of them were attractive girls. This guy, Chad (yes that’s his real name), was sitting on a fence with his beer, dropping lots of random facts about his life.

He’d already told us he was making $160,000 at his new contracting job. He also told us he was working on a book and had written 75 pages. I knew he was lying because he had a pattern of fibbing, including lying about being a sniper.

You and I aren’t as unlike Chad as we’d like to think. Though less in severity, nearly every one of us lies every day.

For example, researchers found that 60% of people lie in a mere 10-minute conversation. Researchers found a wide birth of lies with each student. Some lies were innocent — such as agreeing they liked a person they didn’t actually like.

Others were far more extreme, with one student claiming to be the former star of a famous rock band.

The thing is — we have to lie. If we want peace and less drama, it’s necessary. If I walked around being 100% honest all day, I’d be getting routinely punched in the mouth.

Lying and bragging in conversations is a product of insecurity, a desire to feel valued and respected.

Approximately 80% of respect comes from perceptions of competence and warmth. The easiest way to convey both is to be confident and talk less. Be a friendly, good listener.

Recap for memory: use these four tactics in everyday life

Give bad drivers a thumbs down It will make them rethink their actions.
If your plate or soup has a bug in it, send it back, but not before covering it in salt.
Be confident, kind, and listen well — and most people will respect and like you. Don’t tell people you were the lead singer of Van Halen.
If your life depends on a coin toss, choose the side facing up, it has a 2% advantage.