People Are Sharing Times They Were Challenged To Something The Person Didn't Know They Were A Pro At

From Redditor u/squeakycleaned:

I was a competitive swimmer for 14 years, including 4 years of NCAA, but I'm on the shorter side so people don't assume I was any good.

Was at a friends house on a lake one summer, and a macho guy challenged me to race to a buoy in the middle of the lake, to prove... something, I guess. The lake is deceptively large, about a half mile across, so I warned him that if he isn't a strong swimmer it could be dangerous.

He was running out of gas after about 2 minutes, so I offered to let him off the hook, but he insisted he would finish. I went to the buoy and was swimming back when I found him floundering, so I lifeguard swam him back to the house. His ego took a deserved hit that day.

Don't get cocky around water, even if you think you're a strong swimmer.

From Redditor u/LeepII:

My wife and I were taking an evening cruise for adults in Portsmouth Bay. The ship drove around the shipyard, where my submarine and several others were stationed. My wife and I are having a quiet drink when a really loud know it all starts spouting misinformation about each submarine we are driving by. Calling them all the wrong class, wrong names, etc. When he literally points to my submarine and says "and that is a 637 class" my wife finally speaks up and says "actually that is a 688" . The guy gets all gruff and says "well how would you know?". My wife smiles, hugs my arm and says sweetly "That's my husbands submarine, it is the Minneapolis St Paul, SNN-708." He turned beat red while his date laughed.

From Redditor u/MoodyBernoulli:

Wasn’t me, but there’s a story about an old geotechnical engineer who used to work for the company I work for.

Several senior staff had to attend a meeting with the client, and some government regulatory staff who were being awkward and not approving the design.

This geotech guy is pretty much quiet the whole meeting. Throughout the discussion, the government guy keeps referencing this research document and shooting down anything anybody suggests.

Near the end of the meeting geotech asks government guy if he has the research paper with him. He responds yes and places it on the table.

Geotech asks government guy who is the author of the paper? Then slides over a business card. Turns out it’s geotechs own paper that government guy has been referencing to defend his argument.

Government guy went bright red and apparently approved the design the same day.

From Redditor u/natashkagankav:

A guy I went on a date with tried to serenade me with his okay piano skills. He was incredibly patronizing to me and tried to explain to me what the notes were even when I told him I’m also a pianist. So after his endless explanations I asked him to move over on the bench so I can try to play. I’m a two time Carnegie Hall pianist. He never called me back afterwards. Worth it!

From Redditor u/teashoesandhair:

I once went to a museum with my sister and her friend, who I hadn't met before. We got to the Greek art bit and her friend started telling me how she was super into Greek myth, and I thought that was cool, because I was, unbeknownst to her, doing a Master's in it at the time and also keeping a blog of myth retellings, which was pretty popular, and it was a relief to have something in common with this stranger.

She then got weirdly haughty and told me she probably knew more myths than I did, so, being polite, I didn't challenge her on it and just asked her to tell me her favourite, so that we could have a conversation about it.

She proceeded to tell me the myth of Daedalus and the minotaur. I asked her how she'd heard of that one, because it's fairly obscure. She told me she'd read it on a viral blog post on a blog about mythology.

It was my blog.

From Redditor u/impulsekash:

Not me but a while back a guy I knew from church growing up posted on facebook something about Crusades and medieval Christianity. A girl responded and gave x, y, z reasons why he was wrong. The guy responded back with you don't know what you are talking about, you need to do your research and linked couple of youtube links of armchair historians/pastors. She hits him back with a dozen or so academic sources and let him know that she was 3 years in a PhD program studying medieval history.