‘What ‘confidently incorrect’ fact has someone told you about something you’re an expert in?’ – 23 people who got it unbelievably wrong

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as the old saying goes, and a state of affairs that has been made a heck of a lot worse by the amount of time we spend on social media.

People with limited knowledge overestimating their expertise is also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, and they’ve been chatting about it on the AskUK subreddit after Fit-Bedroom-7645 posted this:

What’s your favourite ‘confidently incorrect’ fact that people have told you about something you’re an expert in?

This is inspired by a recent interaction, I had commented on a post that during the summer, it’s common for kids to set off fire hydrants. I was promptly downvoted to oblivion, was confidently informed that the UK absolutely does not have fire hydrants, and I was an ignorant yank for suggesting otherwise, and after providing evidence, my posts got removed.

I literally work in the water industry, and hydrants are a vital part of the network, and a legal requirement to allow firefighting, ours just happen to be underground not sticking out like the in the movies. Thought it was funny how confidently wrong people can be. What’s the best one you’ve heard about your profession/special interests?

It turned out they weren’t alone in having to put up with wrong-headed know-it-alls, as the replies showed…

1.

‘No specific facts, but without going into it too much, I’m a scientist specialising in infectious diseases diagnostics and really cut my teeth into virology during the pandemic.

For the last six years I’ve just had to listen to soooo much dribble about how you can falsify a lateral flow positive result with lemon juice (yes that reaction is part of the fucking methodology). How PCR is wrong and generates false positives if you keep it running (hence why we fucking cut it off after a certain number of cycles and have scientists evaluate the results). How NHS scientists were paid to lie – where is my Lamborghini then?

Don’t get me started on anti vax! I’m dealing with the fallout of all the increased prevalence of all the diseases we’d left behind in the 1800s which are now flourishing amongst our children.’
–rezonansmagnetyczny`

2.

‘I was a nurse on a covid ward. My mother-in-law thinks I was paid off by big pharma to kill people with midazolam and morphine.

I pointed out that I’d have a nicer house if that was the case. I’d probs not have crippling ptsd either.’
–Efficient-Lab

3.

‘I once had someone tell me that actually my husband served in the Navy and not the RAF. They’d never met him.’
–FrogScorn

4.

‘I once had someone on a forum site tell me how my own software library worked. There was no reason for them to know I was the author, but like… why are you responding to me with pure shit? I responded again once politely to clear things up for the original person. They never responded, nor did they edit their weird misinformation post. Just odd.’
–HashDefTrueFalse

5.

‘I’m a clockmaker by trade. There are many self-proclaimed clockmakers who do this as a second profession after an early retirement, or even as a hobby, who are self taught but now claim they know better than some young’un as they’re 50+yo and used to be an engineer and I’m just in my 30’s (and actually do still have spots). It was worse when I was still in college in my 20’s (but already knew more than them).

No specific examples that I can remember, just the sheer arrogance and telling me I should stick with the simple clocks for now before tackling something more advanced/older, meanwhile I have experience working on clocks as old as 1520 or with large astronomical or musical complications (or both) without issues.’
–uitSCHOT

6.

‘God this. I work in tech, I will have old people act like they know more about computers while literally asking me for advice. If you know how they work why are you struggling?? And asking me????’
–Kaiisim

7.

‘I’m a clinical psychologist that specialises in the treatment of schizophrenia and severe mental health conditions, people will regularly say ‘oh that’s when people have a split personality isn’t it’ and when I say no, they’ll disagree with me and swear blind that it is because they saw something about it on TikTok.

In fact being a clinical psychologist is such a fucking nightmare with the online wellbeing space being so full of grifts and misinformation that I usually say I’m a healthcare assistant and find something better to talk about than work.’
–Short-Shopping3197

8.

‘My wife got told very stridently by someone on the checkout at Boots that she shouldn’t take paracetamol and ibuprofen at the same time. She told them that isn’t true and there is no problem doing both at the same time, but they told her she would be at risk of overdosing and ending up with permanent damage.

Should note, my wife is an anaesthetist.’
–BobBobBobBobBobDave

9.

‘I get a lot of Americans telling me how lawless London is and that we have no go areas, if that counts.’
–UKAOKyay

10.

‘I’ve heard it’s under Sharia Law too.’
–SilverellaUK

11.

‘A pony is a baby horse. No. A foal is a baby horse. Ponies are smaller equines who share some characteristics.’
–WanderWomble

12.

‘I was confidently told that I couldn’t possibly know whether a person with cancer could use a cold cap for her chemo. I’m the lead on the chemo scheduling team at the uk’s largest single site cancer hospital.’
–InkedDoll1