Do you ever sit and think about all of the useful information that we DIDN’T learn in school? Why didn’t they tell us stuff like, if you apply for a bunch of credit cards or let every car salesman run your credit your credit score takes a hit. No, instead they taught us how to write checks. Yeah, there’s a skill that is still paying dividends.

Stop and think about all the times when you’ve said to yourself, “how come nobody told me ____.” Well, it happens to me all the time and I think it’s that way for a lot of guys. And women too, but you ladies seem to pick up on some of this stuff better than us. Maybe you’re smarter or maybe you just have more room in your brain without all of the sports stats and stupid movie quotes taking up space.

For example, I have a dishwasher with a knob that you have to turn to choose the wash cycle. Up until recently, I would put soap in the machine, close the door, and turn the knob to “normal wash.” As I went past the “pots and pans” and “heavy” settings the machine would clunk and hiss trying to start each cycle. Then one day I watched a female friend put soap into her dishwasher, turn the knob BEFORE closing the door, and then when she closed the door the machine just started without a whimper. Huh. I stared for a second and said “you know, I bet it’s better for the washer to not turn the knob past all of those setting while it’s on.” Her reply: “duh.”

So I decided that I would write down all of these stupid things. Many will likely be obvious to anyone who has made similar mistakes. Some things, maybe not. I’ll include recommendations such as what to look for when you buy a certain product if I realize some need-to-knows after making a purchase. I may make suggestions for products or services that for some reason the majority of folks haven’t picked up on.

Like most advice, I expect it will fall mostly on deaf ears. But if I can save one guy from muttering “huh, didn’t see that coming” then maybe I’ve accomplished something.