Servais (il/lui)Jan 24, 2025

What's a phrase you misinterpreted the meaning of for the longest time?

https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/29155606

What's a phrase you misinterpreted the meaning of for the longest time? - tchncs

I’ve seen people using “that’s what she said” in a very serious setting, as a way to say “good point/touché”. They had no idea it was from the Office.

Show threadawesomesauce309Jan 24, 2025
Growing up I always wrote off “it’s always in the last place you look” as just another random thing adults loved to just say all the time.
Show threadOnomatopoeia

It’s meant to be humorous or ironic, or to express frustration.

Of course it’s in the last place you look, because once you find it you stop looking.

Jan 24, 2025 at 4:22pmWeb
Show threadBuddahrifficJan 24, 2025

My interpretation of it wasn’t meaningless.

Like my search for object algorithm goes like:

  • First look where I expect it to be. It’s not really missing at this point.
  • Then I think of whether I can remember putting it somewhere different and check there. If it doesn’t turn up at this point, I now consider it missing.
  • At this point, I’ll make a mental list of all of the places it makes sense to be and search down that list.
  • If it’s still not found, then I’ll start just looking everywhere until either I find it, get distracted by something else, or give up on finding it.

    • I always thought of “it’s in the last place you look” in terms of the list in #3. You think of 5 places it might be, and whatever the order you check them in, it will be in the 5th location you check.

    Your interpretation sounds more like it’s in terms of #4. Or maybe #3 but checking each place as you think of it instead of building up a backlog.