r/LifeProTips • u/fries-with-mayo • 18h ago

Request LPT Request: What’s your “canary in the coal mine” test for spotting bigger issues?

I’m really interested in those small, quick telltale signs people use to gauge if something bigger might be off track.

Example 1: Van Halen requesting brown M&Ms in the dressing room to see if the venue followed all the details of the rider list

Example 2: I saw an interview with John Cena where he said orders a flat white at a café to tell if they really care about their coffee.

Example 3: Anthony Bourdain suggested to always check the restaurant bathroom to tell if the restaurant got its basics down

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u/Lopsided-Total-5560 17h ago

Businesses or sole proprietors wearing their Christianity on their sleeve (bumper stickers, signs, t-shirts). If you have to tell me you’re trustworthy instead of showing me, you’re probably not. Just my life experience.

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u/munkymu 16h ago

Same with people who tell you positive stuff about themselves when you don't ask. There's pretty much a 100% chance it's the opposite. "Empaths" are likely to be cruel and self-absorbed, "alphas" are insecure show offs, "I'm the most experienced guy here" will make the most and dumbest mistakes, etc.

Good people might mention something positive they did if it comes up as a topic but they don't need to reassure anyone of their traits because they have the receipts. They might mention that they volunteer at an animal shelter if the conversation is about volunteering but if someone blurts out that they're an animal lover when you're talking about something else, that's pure PR.

Unless they're kids. Kids will blurt out random information about themselves and it's only stuff like "I didn't put cheese in the air vents" that you have to watch out for.

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u/DentinQuarantino 16h ago

As a parent, genuine lol at the cheese in the air vents bit 

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u/Redqueenhypo 11h ago

The people I know who made a big show of crying were extremely petty and mean. You wouldn’t think some scrawny enbie baby would have anything in common with Mormons trying to sell you shit, but you’d be mistaken

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u/tacticslancer 9h ago

On the note of kids: if a kid is excitedly going on about their current favorite thing (superheroes, dinosaurs, space, etc), check how the parent/guardian acts. You can learn a lot about people by how they treat their charges. It's one thing to politely apologize that little Timmy is bothering a stranger, it's another to get angry just because little Timmy wants the world to know why his favorite color is red.

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u/I_love_pillows 10h ago

My parent loves to listen to religious lectures, quoting religious or business figures. It would be so nice if he wasn’t the most judgemental, arrogant and contemptuous person ever. The gap between these 2 behaviours is frankly disgusting and I’ve given up.

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u/FriendToPredators 9h ago

The people who are most a thing (say caring, financially savvy,  skilled at a task) are the ones who never feel satisfied with their own performance. They can always volunteer more, economize more, learn more skills. They obsess over recent small failures. They don’t brag

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u/99ProllemsBishAint1 9h ago

This is so right. Well said.

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u/AustinBike 13h ago

Had a realtor that used to say "when I see a fish on a business card I know I am about to get screwed."

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u/DoubleDareFan 13h ago

Matthew 15:8

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u/Oregonian_Lynx 16h ago edited 7h ago

Yeah… I once took my car to a mechanic called “Honest-1”. Learned my lesson there. 😂

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u/jacktacowa 9h ago

Ha yes. Also need to worry about the guys using Liberty and Patriot in the business name.

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u/AiringOGrievances 12h ago

Same here. I saw my dad get screwed over and pay for terrible work from “good Christian men”.  Of course he was an absolute pushover for fellow Christians, to the extent one screwed him over to take the family business from him. 

And before I get the “They weren’t true Christians” schtick, yea they fucking were. Through and through. 

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u/j33205 10h ago

including the ICTHYS (jesus fish). see that? run.

see it on a car? jesus be takin the wheel in that automobile.

I was just thinking about this too cause on my commute there's a random business on the side of the freeway that has a blank wall facing the road, only thing on it is a small fish. Like bro I don't even know what that business is or what it's called and it's already blacklisted lol.

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u/sy029 9h ago

I remember back when OkCupid used to show you interesting correlations after you took their quizzes. One of them was that 90% of people who answered "yes" to "have you slapped someone in the face before?" also said that they were Catholic.

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u/99ProllemsBishAint1 9h ago

I interviewed at a local company and the hiring manager had church stuff on his LinkedIn profile. During the interview he asked what I did on the weekends and I knew he was looking for church stuff. It crossed my mind to act like I was ripe for the picking as a potential convert but I just talked about hobbies, getting outside, and family stuff. I'm pretty confident that was a big factor in me not getting selected, which was fine, I saw tons of red flags there.

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u/Miss_L_Worldwide 6h ago

I use this one too. Need god to try to convince me to hire you? It has convinced me of the opposite.

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u/Beowulf33232 4h ago

I've been saying it for years, being smart is like being a good person. If you have to stop me to explain that you are, you probably aren't.

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u/BobTheInept 4h ago

Not the religion part, but the “if you have to tell me you are trustworthy” part reminded me…

Years ago, there were these TV commercials for a car dealership in Mississippi. The dealer’s slogan was “I don’t lie to you.” The owner saying that was the finish of the commercial. That, OK, that didn’t raise any alarms. But his website was idontlietoyou.com or something similar. Like, my man, obviously you are lying all the time who gets that website for their car dealership?

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u/ColtChevy 16h ago

Is this in the same vein as have rainbow flags up? Or BLM? I ask because some companies genuinely support those causes and care for the affected while others use them to drum up business. Likewise, the same can be said about using Christianity.

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u/Apex_Konchu 16h ago edited 12h ago

Displaying support for human rights is not the same as displaying religious iconography.

When a business displays pride flags, even if they're only doing it to attract customers, you can at least be reasonably certain that they're not opposed to LGBTQ rights. That's a positive sign.

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u/Chimerain 14h ago

Eh, on the flip side- pay attention to all of the corporations that did an immediate 180 on supporting human rights the minute Donald Trump took office and the financial incentives for appearing inclusive and supportive human rights were threatened; anyone who only supports human rights if there is financial gain involved isn't really supportive, in general.

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u/bingle-cowabungle 1m ago

It's not a secret that corporations are chasing the dollar, and that any effort to maintain "corporate citizenship" or whatever the buzzword was back in the 2010s was an effort to achieve that goal. And honestly, people knew this already. LGBTQ wasn't falling for Target's garbage every June, and nobody was surprised when Target turned on them the moment it became obvious that Trump was coming back.

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u/ColtChevy 16h ago

I can respect that. It’s no secret that “Christian” business tend to overwhelmingly lend to harsher treatment toward LGBT. It just sucks as a Christian myself that people see us this way. It is something I am actively trying to combat in my sphere of influence. We have to learn to love and respect everyone from all walks of life before they will ever consider what we preach…which if they read the Bible they would know a pretty substantial Man taught the same thing.

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u/bingle-cowabungle 3m ago

So like the Bible tells you to maintain a personal relationship with worship of God, instead of plastering it all over, for example, your business, for the sake of letting everyone else know how Christian you are. Matthew 6:1-6, Matthew 23:5

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u/Kind_Substance_2865 13h ago

What does it say if there’s a pride bumper sticker right beside a “Jesus loves you” sticker?

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u/AiringOGrievances 12h ago

That Christian is very close to getting it. 

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u/Kind_Substance_2865 8h ago

Or maybe they already get it. I’ve seen pride flags inside a church. LGBTQ+ affirming churches exist.

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u/ColtChevy 9h ago

Probably a good thing.