upworthy

interesting

Pop Culture

25 pairs of famous but contradictory idioms that have us more confused than ever

Why do we say "out of sight, out of mind" if absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Language, like humanity is very contradictory.

While idioms and proverbs have their differences—mainly that proverbs convey a bit of common wisdom, whereas idioms do not have to have that component—both aim to make sense of the world in concise, easy-to-understand ways.

But both can completely fail at this since both tend to contradict themselves. For instance, there seems to be very differing schools of thought when it comes to hurrying versus being patient, as is indicated by these contrasting phrases:

The early bird gets the worm.

Haste makes waste.

All good things come to him who waits.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Look before you leap.

He who hesitates is lost.

Slow and steady wins the race, but time waits for no man.

Like…huh? Clearly the only idiom that’s actually true in this regard is hurry up and wait.

huh, question, confused, unsure, what? Confusion. media2.giphy.com

But there’s more where that came from! Here are some other proverbs, idioms, and clichés that mean the complete opposite.

  1. Absence makes the heart grow fonder / Out of sight, out of mind.
  2. Attack is the best form of defense / He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
  3. Clothes make the man / You cannot judge a book by its cover.
  4. Do it well or not at all / Done is better than perfect.
  5. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth / Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
  6. Doubt is the beginning of wisdom / Faith will move mountains.
  7. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise / Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
  8. Faint heart never won a fair lady / The meek shall inherit the earth.
  9. Familiarity breeds contempt / Home is where the heart is.
  10. Great minds think alike / Fools seldom differ.
  11. Hold fast to the words of your ancestors / Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.
  12. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again / Don’t beat your head against a wall.
  13. It’s better to be safe than sorry / Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
  14. Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone / Misery loves company.
  15. Love makes the world go around / When poverty comes in the door, love flies out the window.
  16. Many hands make light work / Too make cooks spoil the broth.
  17. Money is the root of all evil / Money makes the world go around.
  18. Opposites attract / Birds of a feather flock together.
  19. Save for a rainy day / Tomorrow will take care of itself.
  20. The best things in life are free / There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
  21. The pen is mightier than the sword / Actions speak louder than words.
  22. The squeaky wheel gets the grease / Silence is golden.
  23. Two’s company, three’s a crowd / The more the merrier.
  24. With age comes wisdom / Out of the mouths of babes, come all wise sayings.
  25. You’re never too old to learn / You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Just goes to show that no matter which direction you decide to go in life, there’s likely a saying to back up your reasoning. Because life isn’t, as they say, one size fits all.

Health

From the guy who brought us FOMO, here's how to combat its 'insidious twin,' FOBO

FOBO might actually be causing more damage in your everyday life. Here's how to fix it.

Patrick J. McGinnis called FOBO "FOMO's insidious twin"

Thanks to “pop entrepreneur” and author Patrick J. McGinnis back in 2004, we had a term to quantify that inexplicable dread of possibly missing out on something fun, grand, or important, otherwise known as “FOMO.

But McGinnis also coined a term that, arguably, is even more applicable in our everyday lives—“FOBO.” FOBO, as McGinnis writes on his blog, is the “insidious twin of FOMO,” standing for Fear Of a Better Option.

While both FOMO and FOBO are similar in that both derive from a fear of making the “wrong” decision, FOBO distinguishes itself in “intentionality,” McGinnis explains, describing FOMO as "involuntary" and FOBO as a more deliberate “coping mechanism” to the abundance of choices to be made in the modern day.

“When facing these decisions, you pass them through several lenses: your life experience, past disappointments, and yours and other people's expectations, among others. The more choices you have, the more you have to think about when you’re trying to make a decision. What if you choose the wrong thing…You think to yourself: “I have an idea - I’ll just not decide!” You delay making decisions for as long as possible just in case something actually does come along.”

media3.giphy.com

According to McGinnis, FOBO can look like refusing to “settle” for the options available to us in the moment, piling up as many options as possible, constantly responding with “maybes” or “I’ll get back to you on that,” abandoning ship when it’s time to actually finalize plans, or canceling any plans made a the last minute for “another, shinier option.” I think any of us can remember a time when we were guilty of something like this.

And while McGinnis originally intended for FOBO to be used in the setting of an office environment, it’s easy to see how it manifests in our everyday lives, causing us to never truly commit to anything—including potential passion projects, friends, family functions, you name it—and thus never truly feeling a sense of fulfillment, growth, or trust in our decision making.

“FOBO is a serious problem that can inflict far more damage than FOMO,” McGinnis told Huffpost. “Unlike FOMO, which is largely an internal struggle that mostly hurts you, the costs of FOBO aren’t just borne by you, they are also imposed on those around you.”

So how does one combat FOBO? What strategies help us no longer live in the “in-between” land of "maybe" and trust our instinct once and for all? There are several expert suggestions for this. And while they may be oriented towards work and career, you can easily apply the principles to your everyday life.

media3.giphy.com

For instance, career coach Helen Thomas suggests getting clear on your main values, doing actual research on something you are pondering (rather than letting it sit in your head), adopting a progress over perfection mindset (as in, accepting that whatever choice you may need not be perfect, so long as you actually make it and act on it), making a contingency plan for if your original decision doesn’t work out the way you had hoped, and of course, committing to a path while accepting that maybe there is no one “right” choice. It all boils down to embracing imperfection while being devoted to your growth, really.

And finally, some words of encouragement form McGinnis himself:

“FOBO is a learned behavior, but it can be unlearned as well. And while you might think that cutting down your options will mean you’ll suffer, you’ll find it is actually entirely liberating.”

Joy

12 strange everyday objects that make zero sense until you know where they come from

That weird tiny pocket on your jeans is an example of a phenomenon called 'skeuomorphism'

Sabine/Flickr, Unsplash, Andrew Ng/flickr

Somehow, they're common and mysterious at the same time.

There are certain words, phrases, or idioms in our culture that don't seem to make a lot of sense, and that's because they are holdovers from a time when the words had a different meaning or context. Still, we cling to them anyway as a form of shorthand that everyone understands. But did you know that there are real physical, visual, and (sometimes) tangible objects we interact with every day that have taken a similar journey of defying obsolescence?

These things are sometimes called "skeuomorphs," which Dictionary.com describes as: "an ornament or design on an object that mimics the form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, usually one that reflects a previously functional element, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on the handles of prehistoric pottery."

If you've ever come across something that seems functional but has no discernible purpose, you might be looking at a skeuomorph. Sometimes these objects continue to exist for aesthetic reasons—because they look nice. Other times, retaining "outdated" features or design elements may help people quickly understand what the object does.

Confused? Here are some examples of skeuomorphs you'll definitely recognize. In fact, you probably see or interact with these almost everyday.

1. The infamous tiny jeans pocket

tiny pocket on pair of jeansA super common skeuomorph you didn't know was there.Andrew Ng/Flickr

Most pairs of jeans will, in addition to the main pocket, have a small additional pocket that has been baffling people for generations. There are a lot of rumors about where it comes from and what it's for—condoms, coins, matches, etc. But I think we can all agree that 99% of the time it's pretty much useless.

The truth is that this pocket on jeans is a skeuomorph stemming from the 1800s, when it was designed to hold the face of a pocket watch. Wrist watches didn't become widely popular until after World War I.

2. This computer and phone icon that everyone recognizes

Vintage floppy disk against white backgroundVintage Floppy DiskUnsplash

Skeuomorphs are really popular in the digital design world, where designers often try to mimic real-world counterparts (we'll get to plenty of these!).

Probably the most famous example is the universal "Save" icon, which mirrors an old-fashioned floppy disk from the 1980s. Floppy disks like the one above haven't been common for a long time, but their likeness is still globally accepted in this specific context, and probably will be for a long time to come.

3. The sound your phone camera makes

You might not be familiar with this sound at all if you're below a certain age and used to having your phone in silent mode. In some places, like Japan, phones are required to make a sound when a picture is taken—for privacy and safety reasons.

The sound is a digital mimic of the noise a physical shutter makes on an actual camera and is not required at all for any functional reason!

4. Email CCs and BCCs

When you add someone to an email chain, publicly or secretly, you'll use these functions—but most of us don't stop and think about where they come from.

CC and BCC—"carbon copy" and "blind carbon copy," respectively — come from the age of typewriters, when carbon paper was used to make multiple copies of a document at once. In fact, so much of modern email and keyboards harkens back to typewriters. The Shift key initially shifted up the case stamp to change lower case letters to capital. Caps lock, or Shift lock, locked it in place. And did you know that some people say the entire QWERTY keyboard that is standard today was not chosen because it's the optimal layout? Instead, they claim, QWERTY was designed to separate commonly used letters and prevent typewriter jams.

Others say QWERTY came about when typists were attempting to rapidly transcribe blazing fast morse code. In any case, who knew typewriters were so influential!

5. The teeny, tiny handle on a bottle of maple syrup

Close up of bottle of syrupWhat's that for, anyway?Joe Zimny Photos/Flickr

Look at that thing! No one could possibly grip it or actually use the handle to pour their syrup. So why is it still there?

Surprise! It's a skeuomorph. The tiny handle is a leftover from—or at least meant to evoke — old timey and gigantic stoneware jugs with which people used to store liquids. Ultimately, the tiny handles were a marketing gimmick meant to inspire nostalgia in potential customers.

6. The little bow on women's underwear

A surprising majority of women's underwear features a tiny little bow prominently placed on the very front. It looks nice, but serves no purpose functionally—so why is it so pervasive?

The most likely explanation is that they are a holdover—skeuomorph!—from the days before elastic, when undergarments and many other types of clothes were held up by a piece of ribbon that had to be pulled taught and tied. When elastic came around, the bow was no longer necessary, but too cute to ditch completely, apparently.

7. Window shutters

yellow house with green shuttersWindow shutters add style and flare, okay? Photo by Evan Wise on Unsplash

Homeowners fuss and fuss over the color and style of our shutters, and meanwhile, they don't do a dang thing.

Shutters have been around for hundreds of years. Originally, they were the only way to open or shut a window, long before glass was readily available. By 1920, they were pretty much made obsolete by modern windows, blinds, storm windows, screens, and more, but again, they looked nice so we kept them!

Similarly, muntins—the thin bars that separate most windows into smaller panes—and mullions —the thicker vertical bars that separate one large window into two smaller ones—were originally necessary for support, but fell out of favor as larger single panes of glass became available. But we liked the way they looked, so they eventually found their way back to our homes.

8. The noise your vacuum cleaner makes

Early versions of vacuums were extraordinarily loud. Rumors have persisted for years that modern vacuum manufacturers could almost completely eliminate the noise, if it weren't for the fact that consumers prefer it. When a vacuum is loud, we perceive it to be powerful—so some manufacturers add it back in.

Similarly, electric vehicles make almost no noise. But a lot of people miss the sound of a roaring engine, which has prompted certain manufacturers to artificially add it in even though it's not necessary, according to Cheddar, an authority in financial news and tech coverage. Skeuomorph!

9. Fake pockets, buttons, and buckles

The only thing weirder than the tiny pocket on jeans is having a completely artificial pocket!

Jeans have been around for a really long time, becoming popular during the California Gold Rush thanks to Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis. With such a long history, we're pretty used to seeing pockets in the usual spot. But at some point, some designers decided pockets were disrupting the cut and aesthetic of their clothes—particularly in women's clothes. The solution? Create a fake pocket. It'll look like what we're used to without altering the lines of the garment.

You'll also see plenty of clothes with fake buttons or fake buckles on shoes, likely holdovers from features that used to be functional but weren't necessary anymore.

10. Grills on electric cars

The grill on a car allows air to enter into the engine and help cool the radiator. Electric cars, which are becoming more and more commonplace, don't need this feature. While they do still need airflow, they need much less—yet you still see many of them with a large grill in the front.

Turns out people just really like their EVs to look as much like regular cars as possible.

11. Candle-shaped lightbulbs

a chandelier in a room with a marble wallHave you ever stopped to think about how weird these are? Photo by Edoardo Botez on Unsplash

Here's an obvious but extremely prominent one. Most of us really love candles, lanterns, and other fire-based sources of light. But unfortunately, working with real fire just isn't practical in a lot of cases.

Light bulbs are safer and more convenient most of the time, but we've put a lot of effort into making them look as much like candles and lanterns as possible. There are even light bulbs that artificially flicker like a real flame!

12. Half the apps and icons on your phone

Skeuomorphic design was really common in the early days of smartphones, and it's still fairly prevalent today.

You'll probably recognize a ton of examples: A Notes app that looks exactly like a sheet of paper. A calculator app that looks exactly like your elementary school calculator. A podcast app that looks like a cassette tape playing in a tape player.

Skeuomorphs are extremely common in icons and logos. The Gmail app logo itself resembles a letter in a paper envelope. The universally accepted symbol for phone calls resembles an old-fashioned handheld phone receiver, not a cell phone. The battery symbol looks nothing like modern lithium ion batteries, but much more like a AA.

Skeuomorphs are everywhere you look! Not only do they often look cool, they quickly convey meaning and function to people who may not be familiar with the app or design.

Photo by Sean Benesh on Unsplash

Some facts are only useful for trivia contests.

Ah, useless facts. Random knowledge that serves no purpose other than to take up space in our brains, and maybe, just maybe, win a trivia game (yeah right) or kill time at a party.

Leave it to Ask Reddit to resurface all things odd and amusing, though. People shared their own useless facts that live rent free in their heads. And though they might be pointless, they are certainly entertaining.

Without further do:

  Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

Yep, this useless fact has stayed with us since elementary school. On the bright side, it’s been the source of many a fun meme.

Vending machines are more deadly than sharks.

Gif of a zombie vending machine in a graveyardanimation domination lol GIF by gifnewsGiphy

Think about this next time you go to retrieve a Snickers bar: Between 2002 and 2015, the National Electronic Surveillance System reported that vending machines caused four deaths per year in the U.S. Mostly due to people tipping the machines onto themselves.

Compare that to the shark-related deaths averaging out to just 0.6 deaths per year. Not sure how only about half of a person is considered dead, but math was never my strength.

This statistic might need to be taken with a grain of sea salt, however, given that those in landlocked states have next-to-zero chances of experiencing a shark attack. But there you have it, a useless fact to use when you’re at the beach.

Snails have teeth.

Gif of a snail biting someone's fingerhorror finger GIF by absurdnoiseGiphy

“They’re not big enough teeth to hurt humans. That’s what makes it a useless fact to know. & it won’t leave my head because it’s juuuuuust disturbing enough to make me rethink my entire opinion on snails.” – ghosts-go-boo

But cows do not.

At least, no upper front teeth. Makes chewing—and dentist visits—easier I suppose.

The Sun is about 400 times bigger than the Moon but also about 400 times farther away from Earth. So they look to be about the same size.

A black and white photo of a solar eclipse

A solar eclipse.

commons.wikimedia.org

This explains how the sun can be completely blocked in an eclipse.

Pigeons and doves are in the same bird family.

Gif of animated pigeons standing next to breadHappy Animation GIF by sahlooterGiphy

Columbidae is a subspecies of birds that are stout bodied, with short necks, and primarily feed on seeds, fruits and plants. Though one lives on as a symbol of peace and love, and the other is often considered a flying rat, the names are practically interchangeable.

However, thinking about Stevie Nicks singing, “just like a white-winged pigeon” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

The length of a jiffy…

Gif of the Doc Brown from Back to the Futureback to the future great scott GIFGiphy

According to ScienceFocus.com, physicists use a “jiffy” to define how long light takes to travel one femtometer (which is a tiny fraction of a millimeter). In layman’s terms, one jiffy equals one-fiftieth of a second.

So next time you say, “be back in a jiffy,” know that you better return really, really, really fast.

Most corn is inedible for humans.

corn cob on teal surface

Who knew?

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

1% of the corn grown in the USA is sweet corn (the corn you eat as corn). The other 99% is field corn (or dent corn), which is fairly inedible raw and needs to be processed before human consumption. This field corn is also what they use for non-edible corn products, like ethanol, paint, cosmetics, etc. Yes, most corn goes to livestock feed. Ethanol and High Fructose Corn Syrup are up there as well. Yes, if you're driving on a highway and are passing fields of corn, you very likely cannot eat it.” – Kat_lbltko1pl

Infants have flexible bones.

Gif of stretching baby in diaperstretching GIF by AFV BabiesGiphy

Ever wonder why toddlers seem so much more flexible? This is because a baby’s skeleton is very different from an adult's. Babies are born with about 300 bones (94 more than adults) that are joined together with pliable cartilage to make that whole birth thing possible. As they get older, the bones will fuse together. And suddenly that toe touch is nothing but a distant dream of the past.

Numbers from 1-999 don't have the letter "a" in word form.

white printing paper with numbers

Sorry if your math teacher never told you.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Some vowels just don’t get the respect they deserve.

John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald are both known by three names. And each full name is composed of 15 letters.

Gif of Milhouse dressed as Abraham Lincoln behind textsurprised season 4 GIFGiphy

Actually, this is not entirely correct. Oswald’s full name was not used until after Kennedy’s assassination, due to his habit of adopting false names.

Cockroaches molt.

Unlike a reptile shedding it’s skin, cockroaches molt out of their entire exoskeleton. Out crawls a soft, fleshy, ghostly-white creature that will turn brown over a few hours. You’re welcome for the nightmare fuel.

There you have it. Gems of wisdom no one asked for. They say knowledge is power. But in this case, I’d say knowledge is unnecessary. But still fun!

This article originally appeared three years ago.