508
Do I have incredibly weak thumbs, or does this instruction exist on boxes just to mess with us?
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
508 points (97.6% liked)
No Stupid Questions
35726 readers
1584 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
The post does not say that you will be able to penetrate with the index finger. It just recommends to place the finger that way.
If you want to be able to penetrate with an index finger, I'm off work in about 2 hours. Wait....what?
while you kiss your ass goodbye, and the box of noodles and cheesy flavoring defeats you yet again
load more comments
(1 replies)
Look at the girth of that dude's index finger. No wonder it works for him.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I used to just cut the top off of the box using a kitchen knife. I would start just below one of the corners, with the box on it's side, and I sawed through it.
I got some funny looks for that one when I first did it on autopilot around other people lmao.
You know that the serrated lines on the box aren't great when cutting the cardboard with a kitchen knife is legitimately easier. The blade wasn't even serrated.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I just boil and eat the entire box like any normal person.
I pay for the box. I eat the box.
Most of the nutrients are in the rind, I'm aghast to learn that most people just throw the box away!
If it tastes like it looks on the package, a viable option. Has probably more nutritional value, too.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The one that kills me is when the glue they use to close the box is stronger than the box itself, so you wind up just ripping it open.
I swear to God, in all my life I feel like it's only worked fewer than 5 times.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You're not extending your chi through your finger when you push. The instructions take that for granted, but they really should be more specific.
I tried extending my chi, but it just made my jar of salsa fall on the floor and shatter.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I think you all just have weak thumbs. I've always opened them just as the package says to. Never had a problem.
As a kid, I would have thumb wrestling matches with my older brother, and sometimes, on weekends, I'd hitchhike. I used my thumbs a lot. I've had to replace 4 space bars on my keyboard.
Never skip thumb day.
Me and the boys on thumb day
I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's thumbthing weird about that image.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's possible, but it's a very high Dex roll.
90% of the time the whole box collapses before the perforation breaks.
Latest kitty litter I bought actually says "opens inward for easy pouring" 🙄. Worst part of the chore stabbing it with a finger and hooking the tab back through so it doesn't block all the litter.
I too have been flummoxed by this obnoxious design choice.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I actually just recently, after years of frustration, figured out a technique that works. You squeeze the box near the opening so that it bulges out. Then you can poke it with your finger and rip the top open. Feels like gutting a fish, which I assume now is what they were going for.
I usually just knuckle-punch them in.
It's not that your thumbs aren't strong enough, it's that they aren't sharp enough.
It’s not you. The only person that consistently works for is Freddy Krueger.
Edward Scissorhands
Companies do a really bad job at product testing when it comes to opening stuff. The best ones are where you damage the product because it's so hard to open. It's like they never thought to actually try using the stupid little pull tab they give us to actually open their own product.
there is nothing more infuriating than buying a jar of salsa from the store, and then trying to open it only to have the jar fly out of your hands and break into tiny pieces that you now have to clean up along with salsa all over your floor.
load more comments
(3 replies)
It's not just you.
I just rip open the top of the box instead.
That's right, I'm a rebel.
I ignore these instructions entirely and just open the flappy bits. I am an agent of chaos.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You know, I was just thinking earlier this week that of all the technologies we have, it's weird how much we struggle with perforation.
This sort of package used to be much easier to open when I was growing up back in the 60s and 70s. I don’t know why, but packaging has gotten significantly worse since then.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Good God, the number of products where someone spent the time and effort to design in "systems" for opening/using the package, which are utterly ineffectual is mind boggling.
Did a flimsy cardboard box ever need some special tear tab to begin with?? Hell no, just glue the flap shut and we will open it like every other food box on the planet.
Shit that is infuriating.
I got a different brand of Mac and cheese once and it opened right up using the same instructions.
I feel like the name brand is just messing with people.
The Weaklings must be sacrificed to the pit of fire.
it aren't supposed to be your thumb just a thumb.
An unsettling yet plausible interpretation
I have pretty strong thumbs and generally just end up tearing off most of the top and being pissed at the stupid design.
I thought that's how it was supposed to work?
no kidding the last box of mac'n'cheese i opened, that was the TOUGHEST spot on the box, i just ripped the lid off
Here's the CEO of a company on national television showing off his company's new packaging design. The instructions are to mess with you. Even CEOs can't open their own damn products.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You're supposed to use your thumb to lift that flap, as instructed, not try to punch a hole in it. Start at the side.
As instructed: 'insert thumb'.
I don't think I am the only one thinking inserting on a flat fragile surface means: "punch hole".
If it had some cavity for your thumb to be inserted in it would make more sense.
"Grip corner and lift"?
load more comments
(1 replies)
How is this mac? I've never had it, but I love (and hate) the Kraft stuff.
Used to love kraft dinner. Til the big change. The one where their advertising campaign was that no one even noticed... Can't stand it any more. Probably for the best, we used to eat a certainly unhealthy amount before. Like 3-4 meals a week, whether lunch or part of supper.
It just tastes like burnt cheddar now. Looked all over for a replacement, saw so many people claiming other products or recipes that taste "just like" the old KD. There are none. Those people are wrong. Either they are unwittingly non-tasters and thus unable to factor that into their endorsements, or they are aware they are wrong but are hoping to sell a product anyway.
There is no substitute, it will never be what it was, we have to accept it will never be again. And hopefully with it out of our lives, it will eventually find it's way out of our minds. Can only console myself knowing that it was basically a drug that I probably am better off without... but man was it ever a good drug. Just a box full of comfort, with no immediate downside. I would probably invite it right back if I ever did exist again...
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›