Ask HN: What are the worst instructions you've ever read? - elil17
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rzzzwilson
I haven't directly read these instructions myself, but I do like this quote
from "Most Secret War" by R.V. Jones:

they [the Royal Aircraft Establishment] had at one stage changed the method of
packing bombs into crates, with the result that a crate arrived at Farnborough
bearing the legend ‘Caution! The bombs in this crate are packed in a different
manner from that formerly used. Compared with the old methods the bombs are
now packed upside down, and the crate must therefore be opened at the bottom.
To prevent confusion, the bottom has been labelled “Top”.’

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ohiovr
My brother bought a gas motor for a bicycle that came with instructions from
china that were poorly translated and were hard to follow. Assembly
instructions without words can also be frustrating like in the case of a cat
tree / scratching post I bought.

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drakonka
For a gym machine:

"Adjust pad rolls height at the same level of upper side of the things; place
feet on foot plate and strech the heels fully towards the floor"

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diehunde
Instructions for assembling furniture. Man those suck.

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godot
Most instructions for assembling furniture that contain texts in steps usually
do suck. I've found that many stores also opt for purely graphical steps with
no texts (e.g. Ikea furnitures, Staples office chairs), and those are usually
a lot more intuitive; they also force the packaging and labeling of parts to
be as clear as possible.

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lukaszkups
most probably furniture instructions from Black Red White company. While IKEA
has many separate steps illustrated in their instructions, Black Red White's
contains like 4 steps in total how to assembly their furniture while having 4
times more elements

