Sunday, December 6, 2020

Craziest Butterfly Effects From People's Small Decisions


It's truly crazy just how much of an impact one small decision can end up having in the grand scheme of things. Or maybe what we merely conceptualize as being a "small decision" on the surface level, is nothing of the sort. The universe is weird, and likes to keep us on our toes. Maybe that's the inherently fun part about living -- is not knowing what's coming around the corner, and certainly not knowing what a minor move will go on to cause. 

1.

Text - A911owner • 6h 6 Awards My existence. When my dad was about 20, he needed a phone number so he called the operator from a pay phone, she gave him the number, he hung up, and she accidentally refunded the money back to the pay phone. She called the pay phone back and asked him if he could put the money back in, which he did and hung up again. She accidentally refunded the money again and had to call back again to ask him to put the money back in; he did and hung up again. She was so fluste

2.

Text - BrStFr • 7h 3 3 Awards The older I get, the more I am constantly cognizant of the vast cascade of seemingly insignificant decisions and actions that led me to where I am. For example, a decision 25 years ago to change a refrigerator light bulb before going out resulted in my being at the "wrong" time and place so as to get mugged, which resulted in my decision to move out of the city I had been living in, which resulted in my meeting my wife, and from there to having all my kids and the w

3.

Text - k-laz • 6h 3 3 Awards I have one for another person. In 2014, I was coaching my twins' (M/F) rec flag football team. My oldest player has a younger sister who came to watch a practice - we will call her Grace. She saw my daughter on the team, told her dad "There's a girl on that team!" and the next week, she was on my roster. Her and my daughter became fast friends. While the flag football season was wrapping up, I was putting together my roster for the upcoming rec volleyball team. At th

4.

Text - induceddaftfan • 6h 10 Awards My parents dream was to have a "famous child". When my older sister's figure skating career ended in her early twenties, the spotlight shifted to me. I was a fine oboist, and took private voice lessons with intent to audition for the local music faculty (opera?). In any case, there was a lot of pressure, and while I was successful at school and classical music, it was never enough. At 17, before senior year began, my sister gifted me a kitten. My parents had

5.

Text - I couldnt afford a music degree while living on my own, even with the entrance scholarships. And good thing. Entering the work force showed me how much I love active jobs. 3 years later, I enrolled in college and became an industrial mechanic/millwright, to my parents great shame. After a few years of this I landed a sweet contract where I work on Saturdays and Sundays but receive a full week's pay. Although I am a living beacon of disappointment, I comfort myself with my 100k a year job,

6.

Text - robotmonkeyshark • 6h 3 6 Awards At a university career fair and just has a long day taking to companies and heading out when I see a Honda booth. Designing cars would be awesome but there is a huge line, it has been a long day, and what are the chances? But wait! They are giving away hats and shirts and model cars! So I talk to them. A day later I get a callback for an online assessment. I fill that out and don't hear anything back for a month or so, the I get a call one night saying I w

7.

Text - lulun97 • 6h 3 4 Awards I sent a friend from secondary school (who I had a huge crush on) a message saying happy birthday a couple years after we left school. Did the whole 'we'll have to catch up soon!' thing, not expecting much. He replied with 'how about Monday?'. I saw him that Monday for a coffee. Next month will be our 6th anniversary. Best thing that ever happened to me. My friends joke I'm 'queen of escaping the friendzone'. Q Reply 4 4.4k 3 •..

8.

Text - wonderingdrew• 7h 3 2 Awards I was given two start dates for an entry level job in a large organisation. The date I choose to start led to working in a small but high profile team so I got lots of exposure with senior management and I became the can-do-guy who'd fix a million tiny problems. That recognition led to promotions, a fantastic career, further professional qualifications and working overseas for several years. I also met my best friend and my partner. If l'd chosen the other dat

9.

Text - Nematobrycon • 7h 3 4 Awards I chose to rearrange the sequence of classes slightly before starting my education. By doing this, I had to commute to a different branch of the school in a different town than the one I was originally signed up for. On my first day there, I helped a girl who had managed to break both of her arms in a drunken shopping cart accident, I learned later. This girl, whom I would absolutely never have met had I not changed my classes around, is my wife through 14 yea

10.

Text - beanbiin • 7h 3 2 Awards About 10 years ago, There were no pc games to play so I tried using windows XP's movie maker out of boredom. I didn't know that l'm going to enjoy it and take it seriously. Now, I'm currently working on a tv/film production as a video editor. Clarification: I mean, there's no games that is installed with our computer back then. | Reply 9.6k3 +

11.

Text - rleash • 6h 2 e 34 Awards The first day I ever signed up for internet back in 1999, I installed mlRC (because it was on the starter disk my ISP gave me) and joined a random chat room. Over the course of the next year the "regulars" in that room became like family to me. We would talk about everything. All that practice made me a fast typist and WAY better communicator than I was before that. They would even help me when I had trouble understanding something in my college classes. I also m

12.

Text - 35mmPirate • 7h 8 Awards My wife got an email from her old colleagues the day we returned home from our honeymoon, asking if she wanted to star in a short film they were doing for fun. She said sure, and asked if I could come along, as she knew I had an interest in movies, but at the time I worked in life insurance and was miserable. It was more than an interest- I had always wanted to make films, but never made the right connections with people and didn't know where to start. I made frie

13.

Text - JakeMasterofPuns • 8h 1 Award I made a dumb Facebook post because I was bored ("like for a tbh.") A girl liked the post and I sent her a message. 8 years later, we are now married. Q Reply 1 3.2k 3 ...

14.

Text - groundedcloudhead • 10h 3 15 Awards Made a last minute decision to go to a friend's divorce party and met my wife Reply 48.3k ...

15.

Text - the5thbeagle • 8h 4 Awards Out of university, looking for a job and exhausting all the online resources. On a whim, I looked in the career section in a print newspaper that was lying around in the house. (We never subscribed to that paper, I dont know why it was even there). Got the job in a different city, met someone who is now one of my best friends, who introduced me to their friends, who introduced me to their friends and so on, until I was eventually introduced to my wife. If l'd fo

16.

Text - kimar2 • 8h 3 4 Awards The other day I was driving home from work, traffic was light and I was behind a car with a numberplate that started "KFD". Decided to duck through KFC drive thru for chippies with extra salt as a little treat to myself. They took forever to bring them out and by the time they finally did (all told about 10 minutes later), traffic has slowed to a complete halt. I need to get over a bridge that's normally six lanes which has now been reduced to one. Turns out it's du

17.

Text - Spiritual_Jaguar4685 • 7h 9 Awards I was always super flirty with the girl from HR, but we were always seeing other people / don't date at work so when she left the company I was bummed. A year or two later a coworker asked me to search my email archives (that was a thing back then) for something he needed. I ended up stumbling across the "farewell to my work-friends" email from HR girl and she sent it from her personal email address. I reached out to her, we had coffee, then a date, then

18.

Text - davevillafuckyeah • 7h 1 Award I finished working half an hour earlier and I was sent home by my boss, an old friend, on holyday in our hometown, texted me out of the blue and asked me if I could pick up her American friend because she could not make it in time and I was the only one who spoke English. Took a shower, shaved my head, picked her up, and 10 months later I married her. Reply 1 9.0k 3 ...

19.

Text - Naganofagano• 8h 33 Awards My husband- He found out after 18 years that his moms side of the family was Spanish, not Mexican. He found this interesting and changed his country to "Spain" on MySpace instead the US where he really was. Meanwhile in Australia, I was helping my friend find Spanish people to add as a friend as she was learning the language. I came across my now husband and decided to send him a friend request as well. We got along really well and met in person after 3 years. H

20.

Text - Andromeda321 • 6h E A 2e 14 Awards When I was in 8th grade (13 years old) I had a really long bus ride home so would pass the time by reading. One day I faced the very serious situation of nothing to read and a minute to grab something in the library, and for whatever reason I grabbed a book on astronomy. That book was amazing and grabbed me like nothing else had before. I remember being excited to realize every astronomer on Earth was 13 years old once too, and that was a career you coul

21.

Text - demonardvark • 9h 3 6 Awards My desire for pizza set off a chain reaction that destroyed my family. One day got home from school and really wanted pizza. family was poor so spontaneous food trips weren't always in the cards. Really worked my pouty face to my mom and begged to go to the local pizza place for dinner. She said alright. While chilling there I saw my uncle walk by, and I was like "da fuck, uncle X is that you?". Now you might say well he wanted pizza what's the big deal? well

22.

Text - Generic-Online-User • 8h O 3 10 Awards 4 years ago a kid I barely knew from school invited me to a six flags. I was a bit of a loner at the time and I heard rumors about this kid being weird, so intended to not go. On the day he wanted me to go, I was feeling extra bored and decided on a whim "why not?". So I went and met this kid and two of his friends I've never met at a six flags. 4 years later and that kid is my best friend, and I have 3 other very close friends I met through him. Not

23.

Text - Mutchie • 6h A 1 Award I had to renew the sticker on my license plate a couple of years ago and really didn't feel like sitting in the waiting room by myself forever so I told my mom l'd take her out to dinner after if she came with me.. The guy working at the counter turned out to be my moms long lost biological brother. If she hadn't come with me I would have never known Reply 1 203 ...

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