Boring but Practical/Real Life: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
== Subpages ==
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== Other Examples ==
* Humans are often praised for their high intelligence compared to any other animals. However, this is only the second best superpower humans possess. Even more important and providing humans with an advantage over almost any other animals of the plain was the ability... to walk! And keep walking for hours. Many animals are a lot faster than humans but also tire much faster. Humans can travel over very long distances with relatively short amounts of rest and their ability to carry water with them extended this even more. To capture a horse alive, you just had to follow them until they were too exhausted to take a single more step.
** One of the few other animals with a similar ability to travel over long distances is the trusty dog. The beginning of a wonderful partnership.
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* Regular, comfortable clothes. Spend a few months rehearsing/acting in a corset, hoop-skirt and high heels if you don't believe me.
* The humble spear. Basically the next step of weapons development after inventing the knife (or sharpened rock), and has been in use for thousands of years by almost every single culture that has ever existed. It has equipped entire armies, and even now exists in the form of a bayonet attachment for guns.
** So practical, that it coined the name of an entire nation. The
*** The spear not only evolved into the bayoneted musket or rifle, but into stakes which are universally used as a "spice" to fortifications. Not to mention such elaborations as the abattis (interlaced and sharpened branches) and Cheval de Frise (stakes pounded into a single log as a spine).
* Roman equipment:
** The humble short sword and shield of the Roman legions. Compared to the massive swords and axes of their opponents, these seemed sadly undersized but, combined with Roman tactics, it easily carried the day in thousands of engagements. There's a reason it's known as "the sword that conquered the world".
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*** The mighty ''Bismarck''. Sank the ''H.M.S Hood'' in only a few minutes with nearly every hand aboard. One of the most high tech, powerful naval vessels around. Brought down by a torpedo launched from a Swordfish.
*** Swordfishes were later fitted with radar and used for anti-submarine warfare. Once that happened, the North Atlantic wasn't safe for any German ship or submarine.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20140703085610/http://www.wwiivehicles.com/ussr/aircraft/fighter/polikarpov-i-16.asp I-16] by Polikarpov, aka "Fly" (for the Spanish Republicans) aka "Rat" (for the Spanish Nationalists) aka "Donkey" (for the Russian-speaking). When introduced, it was the first low wing cantilever monoplane with a retractable undercarriage used by any military in the world - and thus quite "hot stuff", yes. And the only thing that gave a serious trouble to SM.79 over Spain. But: it wasn't written off until 1943, and there were good reasons for this.
*** It had two rivals falling under the same description - [http://i16fighter.ru/description/competitors.htm compare photo]. I-14 (ANT-31) was actually more maneuverable and did beat I-16 in mock fights, though was inconvenient for production and had even worse mechanization. IP-1 had better mechanization (raising ski undercarriage, not only wheel variant) and better cockpit, among other things, and actually got into small series. How I-16 won? In spin behavior. I-14 was much worse at this, and IP-1 actually crashed in one test when the pilot failed to stop spinning. I-16 failed to enter some spin modes and stabilized easily. When others finally worked out the kinks, I-16 got already mass-produced and polished, and it was the time to develop the next generation.
*** When the more powerful fighters appeared, it was clear that I-16 is hard to boost much even with better engines. But its relatively large wing area still meant good maneuverability - and ability to carry a better loadout, so it was used as a fighter-bomber. I-16 wasn't such a cutting edge as a plane in 1939, but that's when it got [[Macross Missile Massacre|air-to-air rockets]] and fought like this against the Japanese, with convincing results. Later it was used in "[[Airborne Aircraft Carrier|Project Zveno]]" where it carried 2x 250 kg bombs - it couldn't lift off with this weight on its own - for precise bombing, again with spectacular results.
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** Maintenance workers are almost the exact same thing, except that they take care of the grounds on which we earn our living.
* [[The Lab Rat]].
* Rope. Yup, it's almost as old as a stick - and it's funny how many jobs friction (and occasionally gravity) can do for you. Tying many common knots is ''simpler'' than the proverbial ability of fastening shoelaces. Remember, with little practice most of these can be - and were - used efficiently despite bad lighting and severe rocking, by [[The Drunken Sailor]] who pays more attention to not being blown overboard. [http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/6263/Several-types-of-knots?topicId=68612 Blackwall hitch]{{Dead link}} is barely enough to be called a knot at all, yet has its uses - e.g. to hold a sack closed tight under its own weight, yet accessible immediately by lifting off the hook. Bowline can be tied in a few seconds with one hand. Constrictor (holding so well that people used to simply cut it), [http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/transom-knot transom knot], [
* A large part of tactics and operational art is essentially traffic direction. The general who most efficiently makes large columns of men move about the way he wants them
* While long
* The Mosin-Nagant rifle: A design over a hundred years old (and you might get a rifle that physically ''is'') and outdated for a large portion of its service life, but it's cheap, built to withstand the Russian winter, simple enough for a conscript to use, takes cheap ammo (As not only was enough made for the rifles, it is still in common use today), has all the power of a full power cartridge, and is fairly accurate.
* There's no shortage of fancy muzzle devices for sale for the AR15 platform with cool spikes or dragons attached to them, yet it turns out [https://web.archive.org/web/20160511220850/http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/06/jeremy-s/ar-15-flash-hider-shootout/ the best for hiding flash]<ref>the ones that perform marginally better vent gas downward, which work poorly with prone firing as it defeats the point by kicking up a cloud of dust which is ''worse'' than muzzle flash</ref> is the plain looking, dirt cheap (often free with barrels), standard issue for US rifles A2 Birdcage. While the A2 is a poor compensator (it was never intended to be one) one of the best devices [https://web.archive.org/web/20160427185520/http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/11/jeremy-s/556-muzzle-device-shootout/ for all around performance] in all areas for judging a muzzle device (recoil, muzzle climb, flash hiding) is ''also'' a cheap, standard issue, simple looking muzzle device.
* The club. It is one of the simplest weapons and anyone can acquire one. Some like a police nightstick have more subtle uses like thrusting or neckholds, or as a belaying pin in a tourniquet (or ad hoc handcuffs).
* Fast food will win no culinary awards or the approval of any dates, but its standardised taste and usually certain level of hygiene can be very welcome after a week or more of camping rations or exotic street food made with questionable handling and hygiene practices.
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