Have you ever had an idea that was so dumb, it almost sounded brilliant? I'm sure we all have.
Well, Reddit user @Stenik0522 asked, "What is the dumbest idea you have ever had that actually worked?" and some of these ideas deserve an award. Here's a few of the best:
1. The car plunger:
"I bet my husband I could fix the dent in the car with a plunger. It worked, and I won our bet."
2. The carpet cleaning:
"Real estate told me I had to have the carpets professionally cleaned (wasn't in the contract) or I'd lose my $800 bond. I did some research and found out I could become an accredited carpet cleaner, as there are no official licensing boards in my state. I paid the $85, did the online course and got my certificate. Handed the property management a copy of my accreditation and an invoice for services."
3. Intentionally filing an assignment to the wrong place:
"In university, I was late on an assignment that was supposed to be in my T.A.'s drop box by noon that day. I didn't manage to get there until almost 3 so I was sure he had already emptied it. The rack holding them was just a basic metal frame with about five rows of boxes. My T.A.'s box was somewhere in the middle of the shelf. So I slipped my assignment into the box below my T.A.'s box.
I got my assignment handed back a few weeks later than everyone else and it had a note from another T.A. scribbled on it that said 'Looks like this fell into my box by mistake.' I got full marks on the assignment."
4. The Heinz conspiracy:
"In college, my buddy and I took an investing class and for one of the projects we had a month to 'invest' fake dollars into the stock market and see which team would have the most money at the end. It was spring semester so we put all of our fake money into Heinz, thinking there would be a spike in ketchup and mustard sales as the weather got warmer. The next day, Berkshire Hathaway purchased the entire Heinz company and the professor accused us of insider trading. We had no idea what we were doing."
5. The fake sickness:
"I once faked being sick when I was in middle school and told my mom I had a sore throat and felt a cold coming on. She took me to the doctor and it turned out that I did, in fact, have strep throat."
6. The textbook swap:
"In college I was taking a class that required me to purchase an online textbook and workbook that was registered under your name, basically ensuring that each student would have to buy a new online copy each semester instead of buying used textbooks. I had a friend who took this class a semester before me, so we came up with the idea to message customer service and explain that I had recently gotten married (so my last name had changed) and I legally changed my first name from my friend’s first name to my first name and I would need them to change it in their system. It totally worked and the rep even congratulated my on my marriage."
7. The test finesse:
"Back in high school, I stopped by one of my teacher’s rooms after class to ask him some questions about our homework. When I walked in, I noticed he was grading some of our tests. All of his tests were made up of multiple choice, true/false, or matching, and all of the answers were bubbled in. What I noticed was that instead of using an answer key to grade, he was just placing a stencil over the paper with the correct bubble punched out. The stencil wasn’t transparent, so all it showed was whether we bubbled in the right answer or not. Flash forward to our next test, and I’m stuck on a T/F question. Knowing how he graded, I figured I’d bubble in both T and F, and if he caught it, it would be easy enough to claim it was an accident. Well he didn’t catch it, and I used that trick the rest of the year for a little extra boost on all of his tests."
8. The delivery trick:
"I used to know a guy who, every week, would order his Saturday night curry for delivery while sitting in the pub, and then walk over the road to the curry house and get it AND himself delivered home. One week, we were sitting having a pint and the owner of the curry house walked in, took his order, and had him picked up from the pub — he said it was easier for everyone concerned."
9. The unauthorized hire:
"I stuck my neck out for an ex-con on house arrest at my job. He interviewed well, but his availability was HORRIBLE. My GM said 'no' and I said 'I'm doing it anyway.'
The FIRST night he worked there, I found myself in a bind. He was the ONLY person scheduled in the kitchen from 8-10, and I had no one who knew the kitchen besides myself, because our store had a wicked virus traveling around.
Well, this guy MASTERED production in about an hour. He was faster than my GM on the grills and fryers, and his attitude was so good. I waited on NOTHING and he even tried to help me make sandwiches and send them out. He also managed to clean up the entire kitchen. My GM got over the ankle bracelet, record, and tattoos, and actually hired him for his house-flipping business. All because I said 'we need f**king employees, and you can't be picky when he's the only guy I've interviewed in a month.'"
10. The ice cream truck request:
"On Fourth of July, I was in Brooklyn in a neighborhood not too far from my own. Was having a hell of a time catching a cab when suddenly an ice cream truck pulled up. My apartment was right next to an ice cream truck depot, and I knew any truck in the area was parking there, so I asked for a ride. They obliged. Free ride home and an ice cream cone. Big win. Awkward ride."
11. This prop trick:
"Bobcat tire blew during a job. Had another tire, but no jack. So I positioned the Bobcat behind a dump truck. Well, I tried using the Bobcat to lift the ass end of the dump truck, but because the dump truck was so heavy, the bobcat lifted itself instead. Somehow that still worked and I got the tire changed and back to work."
12. And lastly, the "crashed" project:
"I once got an extra day to work on a video project in high school by coming to class with a video that was just a quarter second of blackness, eagerly volunteering to go first, then acting confused and scared when the file 'didn't work.' The teacher took pity on me and told me to just bring it the following day, and I got to finish it that evening and still got full credit as if I did it on time.
Brilliant, just brilliant.
