yes I forgot to mention surface direction matters (ty bullet for reminding me). For booleans to work as expected the surface normal's of the parts being booleaned must be in the same direction. Booleans will work if the directions are mixed but you will get different results the n expected (for instance a boolean difference might result in the first part being removed or you might end up with a union or intersection).
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675