The Most Fascinating Threads in the r/TodayILearned Reddit Community

What did you learn today? The Reddit community, r/TodayILearned is all about sharing knowledge and their love of learning with others. The forum is designed for sharing the tidbits and fun facts that we learn throughout life. Some of the stuff shared on the subreddit is fascinating, too! There are some real gems of hidden knowledge on this forum. Let’s examine the top posts of all time from the r/TodayILearned subreddit.

To populate this list, we started by visiting the r/TodayILearned subreddit. Then, we sorted the posts on the subreddit by Top and used the time frame “All Time” to find the most upvoted posts ever posted on the forum. Finally, we fact-checked the different posts to ensure they weren’t spreading commonly believed misinformation or half-truths.

One famously popular post on the r/TodayILearned Reddit community features singer, Billy Joel. Joel doesn't sell the front-row tickets at his concerts. Instead, he gives the seats away to random people in the cheap seats to ensure that the front-row seats aren't always filled with rich people and that less fortunate fans get a chance to see him up close and personal. Joel also stated that he feels this ensures that the seats go to real fans instead of people who are only there for photo ops and posturing.

Another interesting tidbit from r/TodayILearned talks about doctors and how they’re choosing to represent cancer treatments to patients and their families. Studies have shown that referring to cancer as a “fight” or a “battle” can have negative effects on the patient’s well-being, especially if the cancer treatments are unsuccessful. When we refer to the process of cancer treatment as a battle or fight, we imply that the fight is always winnable. Thus, when a patient’s treatment fails, they can be left with guilt that causes them to feel they didn’t “fight hard enough.” So, doctors are starting to move away from that line of speaking to improve patient mental health and you should, too!

One thing that always struck me as a little unfair is that smokers get an extra, paid fifteen minutes every few hours to smoke while I have to work through the day. A Japanese company has tackled this problem by calculating how much time smokers use with their smoke breaks on average and giving non-smoking employees extra days off to compensate for all the extra time their smoking employees get while still being paid. It might seem unfair to the smokers, but if they stopped taking smoke breaks, they would get six extra days off. They’re already getting an average of six days worth of time per year in their smoke breaks. If you want to spend it doing something else, quit smoking. Equity in time off feels good!

After the Nazis came to power in Germany, they burned thousands of books that they deemed unsuitable for the society they wanted to build. Among those books were the works of one Sigmund Freud, who was still alive at the time. Instead of responding with anger, although it would have been more than reasonable, Freud responded, “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages, they would have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books.” While book burning and banning is generally bad form for a government or regulatory body, the response from Freud is both poignant and wise.

The American Declaration of Independence was signed by a total of 56 people. One of those people was William Whipple, a slave-owning man. However, after signing the Declaration of Independence, Whipple freed the one slave he owned. He believed that it was not possible to simultaneously fight for freedom while holding another person in bondage. It shows that while the Founding Fathers may have valued freedom, not all of them showed the same conviction toward the freedom and equality of all men. William Whipple did, though.

There are now numerous case studies that show that a 4-day workweek increases overall productivity in an organization (as long as the amount of pay per week stays the same.) One such study was done by Microsoft in Japan, where the company implemented a 4-day workweek by shutting down their offices every Friday for a “Work Life Choice Challenge.” When they compared the productivity for the period to the same period the year before, productivity, as measured by sales per employee, had increased by almost 40% during the 4-day workweek period.

In 1959, the police were called to a segregated library in South Carolina. A 9-year-old black boy had entered the establishment and was refusing to leave until they lent him books. He would later earn a Ph.D. from MIT and become a famous astronaut. He died in 1986 as one of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle, Challenger. The library that refused to lend him books in 1959 is now named after him. It shows that with enough tenacity, you can achieve anything.

Many people are familiar with classical Roman mythology and philosophy. However, few know that the Romans were famous for creating tombs for their dogs as well as gilded emperors. They would even carve epitaphs to remember their dogs when they’re gone. One inscription on a dog’s tomb was translated as reading, “I am in tears while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home in my own hands 15 years ago.” Loving your pets is not unique to Romans, but touching epitaphs for pets should certainly make a comeback.

Dr. Donald Hopkins is best known for being one of the doctors who helped eradicate Smallpox, which is no small feat! However, a few years ago, he was on the verge of eradicating another disease, Guinea Worm Disease. At the time, the disease was looking at over 3.5 million cases per year. In 2018, Dr. Hopkins’ research helped bring that number down to just 28 cases per year as he chased the eradication of another deadly disease. He stated years ago that he would not retire until he had helped eradicate Guinea Worm Disease.

In Alabama, a woman was tipped a lottery ticket that ended up being a big winner. She won $10,000,000 from a ticket she got for free as a waitress. As we all know, money brings out the worst in people. Her colleagues sued her for their share of the “tip money.” Then, the man who gave her the ticket sued her for the ticket. It doesn’t end there, though. Her ex-husband also kidnapped her and she freed herself by shooting him in the chest. Then, she still had to go to court against the IRS over the money she won. Winning the lottery isn’t always lucky, eh?

The Costco hot dog meal is one of America’s greatest treasures. It has remained at a price-point of $1.50 since it was first introduced in the eighties. When the company president complained that the hot dog meal was losing the company money, the CEO, Jim Sinegal, stepped in to prevent a price hike on the meal. He reportedly stated, “If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you.” Costco’s hot dog meal is one of the best examples of how maintaining customer satisfaction can be profitable. Thousands of people are loyal to the hot dog meal, in no small part because of how cheap it is.

The cast of Warner Bros’ FRIENDS series made $1 million per episode during the last two seasons of the show. For reruns, the cast makes an additional $20 million per year. Despite the high price tag, the show continues to bring in $1 billion annually for Warner Bros. The high salaries for the cast were large due to David Schwimmer encouraging the cast to negotiate as a team instead of individually. Unionization is powerful and that’s why it’s so contentious. Team negotiations prevent the company from fleecing you and your coworkers by providing better negotiators and stronger performers from being the only beneficiaries of the company’s goodwill.

Studies show that millennial dads spend around 3 times as much time with their kids as their fathers spent with them. This includes both the fun dad times and the responsibilities as millennial men share more home responsibilities with their partners. In 1982, 43% of fathers said they’d never changed a diaper before. However, nowadays, the figure of uninvolved fathers has dropped to around 3% in the modern day. Fathers are spending more time with their children in all aspects of life and it’s leading to more well-rounded and healthy children and marriages.

Movie stars deal with stalkers more often than the average person. It’s not right and we shouldn’t ignore it, but it happens. Robert Pattinson dealt with his share of stalkers. However, his approach to dealing with one stalker was notably unique. Instead of getting the authorities involved, Pattinson took the woman out on a dinner date. Sounds like the dream, right? A reward for bad behavior? Not quite so. Instead of being a good date, Pattinson just complained about his life for the entire date. He says she never returned to stalking him after that.

If you enjoyed the Animal Planet series, River Monsters, you were probably upset to find that the show had been canceled some years back. However, the show wasn’t canceled due to bad ratings or executive logistics. Instead, the show was canceled because there was no further content left for the show. The showrunner, Jeremy Wade, was able to catch almost every single exceptionally large freshwater fish species, leaving not enough fish to catch for a whole season of the show. So, the network was forced to cancel it since changing the formula would alter the show’s identity.

A fan once drove three hours to deliver a dose of insulin to rapper, Boozie Badazz. When she arrived with the medication, she refused to accept payment for her assistance. Instead, she asked for a photo with her idol. After getting the photo, she began the three-hour journey home. On the way home, she purchased a scratch ticket and won $10,000 from it. Bringing medicine for free must have garnered her some wicked karma to get a $10,000 scratch ticket out of it!

In 1916, an amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed. It would have put all acts of war to a national vote instead of bestowing the power to Congress alone. Anyone who voted to go to war would have had to register as a volunteer for service in the United States Army. We think it’s a good idea and should be put back on the table. Do you want a war? You fight it.

It’s no secret that cannabis use is widespread in America. However, there are few sectors where marijuana usage is as accepted and commonplace as tech. As someone who works in tech and has two exes who are software engineers, I know that drug testing isn’t common in the tech sector like it is in others. After all, so many software developers smoke weed that it would be hard to find adequate talent if you screened for it.

They say that having a powerful father will get you tons of benefits in life and being the daughter of Genghis Khan could get you a whole country. One of the ways that Genghis Khan would assert power over a nation that he was allied with was to marry one of his daughters off to the king of a nation. He would then assign his new son-in-law to a military position. The new positions caused him to lose quite a few sons-in-law in combat. However, when his son-in-law died, his daughter would inherit the kingdom, giving her full control of the nation.

One story that gets passed around about the late genius, Stephen Hawking, is one where he was in an interview. The interviewer accidentally yanked out an unidentified cable, which caused an alarm to go off. Hawking slumped forward, unresponsive when the cable was pulled. Thinking they had killed him by accident, the crew rushed forward. When they approached, they found him giggling to himself about his own joke. The cable had been attached to an office computer which lost power and set off the alarm.