People who don't follow instructions.

Another relative was staying at our house for a few weeks, and she wanted to use our TV. Our Cable/TV/VCR/DVD setup is kind of complicated, and some of the equipment is out of date—it doesn't have enough places to plug things in—so when you want to switch from watching live TV to watching a DVD, you've got to unplug a cable from the back and plug it in in a different place. So I attached a piece of masking tape to the cable and wrote: "MOVE THIS." Then I stuck 2 more pieces of masking tape on the equipment, each with an arrow pointing to a socket. On one of them I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH A DVD." On the other I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH LIVE TV." I also wrote her a note telling her where to look for the labels.

That should be clear enough, right?

So did she follow instructions? No-o-o-o.

She noticed an unrelated cable hanging loose from the wall—it led to the roof antenna, which we no longer use, since we now use cable—and she called me at work to ask if she was supposed to plug that in somewhere.

What bugs me is the fact that she actually did read and understand the instructions—she just didn't trust them. She figured they had to be wrong somehow, since they didn't mention the antenna cable. After I explained that she should just leave that cable alone, everything was fine.

What's the use of being careful to make sure you're right, if people don't believe you anyhow?