One of the great things about being an advertising creative is that you get to learn something new everyday. It’s often something about a client’s business that’s far afield of one’s normal interest. It could be something mundane like an arcane law that governs a business or a manufacturing process, maybe something very interesting about a subculture or it could even be something about a popular sport in another part of the world. All keep me from being bored and learning every single day.

Without further ado, the 10 most arcane or baffeling things I never thought I’d learn over a decade ago when I started this journey as an ad creative.

10. What the hell a “blowdown stack” is.
9. The rules and stars of “international test cricket”.
8. How to code a reversed ordered list in HTML.
7. What CR39 is.
6. What a charette is and that you’re probably being manipulated.
5. In some circles, “floorplan” is a verb.
4. Anything what so ever about the waste water industry.
3. How that package that cooks french fries in a microwave works.
2. That a used car guy can tell more about a car by looking at the backseat than he can by looking at the odometer.
1. More than I ever wanted to know about industrial computing.

Posted on: July 25, 2012, by : Jimmy Gilmore