16 People On The Dumbest Solution To A Problem That Actually Worked

Description of 'How To Outsmart Your Doctor' in the list '16 People On The Dumbest Solution To A Problem That Actually Worked'Stellapotamus:

I canceled a doctor's appointment. They charged $200 without a week's notice. I asked about rescheduling costs; they said it was free.

"Okay, I need to reschedule for two weeks out."

"Is three weeks okay?"

"Yep."

"You are set for three weeks from now. Anything else I can do?"

"Yes, I need to cancel my appointment."

"We need a week's notice."

"My appointment is three weeks away."

"Oh. Okay. Sure."

"Thank you."

I couldn't believe it worked.

From Redditor /u/PaintsWithSmegma:

I worked as a paramedic at a music festival. We got called to a kid tripping on acid. The guy climbed to the top of a portable generator stadium light. He stood 20 feet up on a light pole, staring into the blazing midnight sun, screaming, "I'm a moth go into the flame." Several cops, firefighters, and I stood at the base for 30 minutes. We discussed how to get him down. Should we get a ladder truck and try to coax him down? What if he refuses? Should we spray mace up there? What if he falls?

A greasy janitor suddenly walked up. He turned off the generator power, turned on his flashlight, and aimed it at the mothman. The guy looked at the flashlight on the ground, scrambled down, and followed it to the medical tent like a puppy getting a treat. I felt embarrassed that none of us thought of that.

From Redditor /u/Kasper-X-Hauser:

A nursing home in Germany had patients with dementia who kept wandering off.

They installed a fake bus stop in front of the nursing home. When dementia patients left the building, they would go sit at the fake stop and wait for a bus that did not exist. Staff saw people there, so they would just go and get them.

They solved the problem completely.

From Redditor /u/Nevermind04:

My first car was a 1985 Dodge Ram. It had about 300,000 miles. It was not reliable.

My friend and I had tickets to a concert three hours away. We reached the city fine and had a great time. We could not afford to stay over, so we started the long drive home. If everything went well, we would arrive around 3 AM.

One stretch of highway had about 60 miles between towns. That spot is the worst place to break down. Big signs warned travelers to fill up before leaving town, but I only had half a tank. My truck sputtered out halfway between the towns. It sounded like I ran out of gas, but the gauge still showed half a tank. Everything went wrong.

At 1:45 AM, they were stuck on a Texas highway shoulder. They were thirty miles from towns. There was no moonlight. Teenagers lacked cell phones. They were stuck. After using a flashlight, they found fuel. The fuel pump had died. They planned to sleep in the truck and fix it the next morning.

Old Dodge trucks had the fuel pump in the engine, not the fuel tank like modern cars. The engine powered the pump instead of an electric motor. The pump constantly pumped gas when the engine ran, keeping gasoline ready for the carburetor float valve. Extra pumped gas simply returned to the gas tank.

I drifted off to sleep, then an idea struck. I worked in the dark for nearly an hour. I used an extra hose from agricultural fertilizer, a drink straw, screw clamps, and duct tape. I rigged the windshield fluid pump to move fuel from the fuel line into the carburetor float line.

I got into my truck and hit the windshield fluid lever. The truck started. It took some trial and error, but I adjusted the timing so I knew how often to hit the lever to keep the truck running.

They returned home just after 4:30 AM. The dad did not immediately like the work. But he told his friends how smart his son was. That passed the dad test.

From Redditor /u/CptHammer:

My great-grandmother was a nurse in WWII. She treated soldiers returning home from injuries. She shared this story with me.

"The poor boys suffered much pain and had all the pain medication they were allowed. It was very strong stuff... We rarely gave them aspirin. I had a smart idea using a new candy. The boy thought I was giving them pills. I gave them a blue one, then two yellows. Those boys stayed calm for an hour or two, sometimes resting. I was their favorite nurse because I told them I couldn't give them the E pills because they were experimental. I always kept M&Ms in my pocket."

From Redditor /u/pastelroyalty:

My psych professor told us about this patient. She was a woman in her late 40s. She suffered from OCD and paranoia. Each day while driving to work, she panicked that she left her curling iron on. She thought it would burn down her house. So, she turned around, drove home, checked it was unplugged, and drove out again.

Time passed, and she started making trips home multiple times, sometimes during the day. She risked losing her job over this. Therapy did not help; her medications failed; coping skills did not work. Nothing calmed this woman.

Then she saw my professor. He told her to bring her curling iron in the car. This way, if she got nervous it was still plugged in, she could look and see it next to her.

From Redditor /u/moak0:

A tick crawled into my phone's headphone jack.

My phone ran two more searches.

After fifteen seconds of female guinea hen sounds, the tick left my phone.

From Redditor /u/SSmtb:

I drove 80 miles to a nearby town with one burned-out headlight. The other headlight failed while I was there. I had no money; shops were closed. These were dual beams, so although both headlights were gone, the high beams still worked. Angry drivers honked and flashed repeatedly. I could not leave the town, and I wondered what to do.

I drove 15 miles further before a first officer pulled me over. I explained the situation. The officer offered no advice (this was before cell phones). He said I could go, but I would get stopped again without stopping. I pulled over at the next exit. I got free water, dumped it in the dirt, made thin mud, and smeared it on my lights. It worked perfectly. No more honks or flashes. Several officers passed me.

From Redditor /u/MissNickels:

Our family cat hated our dog. I rubbed the dog with fresh catnip. They became new best friends.

From Redditor /u/SmokeyMcDabs:

I called about a pothole at my store's entrance. They said because it was at the entrance, I had to pay for it.

I called back as a concerned citizen. They said it would be fixed in 72 hours.

From Redditor /u/Atsur:

My parents were in town. My wife and I wanted to take them to dinner.

We went to a nearby mediocre steakhouse at my parents' request. It was around 6:00 PM.

Hostesses said there was a minimum 45-minute wait. I felt suspicious because their parking lot had few cars. I looked into the dining area. Several open tables fit four people. Annoyed, I asked the hostesses why we could not sit at those tables. They replied they were held for future reservations.

I used my smartphone. I opened the OpenTable app. I made a reservation for 6:15 PM for four people. We were seated right away.

From Redditor /u/Everyone_is_taken:

This happened before high-speed internet. We had to move a database between two cities, fifty-hundred kilometers apart, with only one night. People searched how to compress files and rent costly digital lines (like ISDN) to send the copy.

Someone suggested, "Why don't we take the hard drive out of the server and move it by car?" I drove five-hundred kilometers that night to deliver the disk and set up the new database.

From Redditor /u/thudly:

Dudes were peeing everywhere in the bathroom where I used to work. The janitor put a small red sticker on each toilet. Suddenly, the problem stopped. Apparently, men aim at a target 100% of the time if a target is presented.

From Redditor /u/mylesfrost335:

My stepdad drove a sat nav to the shop; it acted weird. The clerk refused it because the warranty only covers physical damage, not accidental damage. So, he lightly dropped the device. The clerk just said, "That'll do, sir," and went to get a replacement.

Redditor /u/PhilUpTheCup:

An airport faced complaints about slow luggage to baggage claim. The airport moved baggage claim farther from the gates. Complaints stopped. People spent time walking instead of waiting. Luggage arrival time did not improve.

Redditor /u/Portarossa:

Duct Tape Occlusion Therapy.

Stick duct tape over a wart or verruca. Replace the tape every two weeks it falls off. This seems like nonsense—like the Windex from My Big Fat Greek Wedding—but it is cheap, painless, and worked for me. Everyone I told used it, even on a verruca I had for nearly ten years. It is unlikely this is just a coincidence.

Admitting something in public makes you sound like the crazy lady at the end of the street who believes tin foil hats block government mind rays.